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A BOOK OF BRITTANY

BV THE SAME AUTHOR

UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME

A r.OOK OF DARTMOOR

A ];OOK OF THE WEST. Two Volumes
Volume I. DEVON

,, II. CORNWALL

Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive

in 2011 with funding from

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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http://www.archive.org/details/bookofbrittanyOObari

GIRL OF CONCARXEAU

BOOK OF BRITTANY

BY S. BARING-GOULD

WITH SIXTY-NINE ILLUSTRATIONS

METHUEN & CO.

36 ESSEX STREET W. C.

LONDON

1901

PREFACE

THIS book is not to be taken as a Guide, con-
sequently only here and there is to be found
in it a detailed account of a town or a church or
castle.

The purpose for which it is written is to supply
the reader with that which is not to be found in
guide-books ; the purpose being to prepare the mind
of the traveller to appreciate what the guide-books
point out to him as worth seeing.

A French writer, M. Alphonse Allais, says: "What
characterises the English tourist more than anything
is the air of profound ennui which never leaves him
from his arrival at Calais or Dieppe to the moment
of his return to his native land. France visibly bores
the Englishman ; he is interested in nothing, listens
with a distrait air to the explanations of the guide,
takes a vague look at the monument or work of art
pointed out to him, and never seems to arrive at any
place save in order to go on immediately to another."

This is true, but it is true because the majority
of visitors do not comprehend what they see. It is
not the province of their guide-books to instruct
b V

vi PREFACE

them ; and it is to fill in such a deficiency that I have
written this little work. When the reader has read
it he will find that there is a human background,
against which the objects he sees in visiting Brittany
stand out, and which gives to them interest and
stimulates his observation.

I have been constrained to omit mention of Nantes,
to which a chapter might have been devoted. My
reasons were two. In the first place, I was afraid
of making my book too long and bulky ; in the
second, Nantes does not belong to the Breton people.
That people extends along the seaboard to S. Nazare,
and occupies the great turf moor of La Bruyere, but
does not stretch further inland. On the south bank
of the Loire the inhabitants talk the Poitou dialect,
on the north that which is Angevin, and not Breton
at all.

As guides, nothing can be better than Joanne's
little blue-backed Departmental Geographies,
that cost one franc each. They are accurate, and give
particulars as to what is to be seen in each commune.
They do not, however, indicate hotels. For this
purpose the visitor will find the " Bretagne " of the
Guides Joanne more serviceable, as it gives extensive
information relative to all that is noticeable on the
main roads, and lists of hotels as well.

An architect will complain that I have dealt with
the styles in an inadequate manner. I have sought
to give a rough-and-ready clue to the ordinary
traveller, to enable him to distinguish the periods at

PREFACE vii

which a building was erected ; and the chapter on
Architecture is not intended for the speciaHst.

In that on Prehistoric Archaeology I have been
obliged to go over the same ground as I have trodden
in my Book of Dartmoor ; but this was unavoidable, as
similar monuments occur in Brittany and Devonshire.

Again, in my chapter on the History of Brittany
I have not touched on the Chouanerie, but have
concluded with the union of the Duchy with the
French crown. The history of the Royalist struggle
against the Revolution is accessible in every History
of France.

Nor have I dealt with the British defeat at S. Cast,
nor the butchery of English soldiery at Landevennec,
when, as Macaulay says, Marlborough " sent in-
telligence to the French court of a secret expedition
intended to attack Brest. The consequence was that
the expedition failed, and eight hundred British
soldiers lost their lives from the abandoned villainy
of a British general." Such episodes are too painful
to dwell on. I have been obliged to select, and have
chosen such as belong to the early history of Brittany,
and such as are not to be found in ordinary text
books.

Finally, I owe obligations to several kind friends
who have assisted me with their knowledge, as M.
Jean Even and Mrs. Walker, of Dinan ; M. Yillard,
of Ouimper, has also kindly allowed me the use of
some of his admirable photographs. The same debt
I owe to Dr. Millard, of Dinard.

CONTENTS

CHAFTEK
I.

The Breton People .

II.

Prehistoric Stones .

III.

The History of Brittany

IV.

Architecture

The Pardons .

VI.

DiNAN

VII.

S. Brieuc

VIII.

Treguier

IX.

Lannion

Leon

XI.

Brest

XII.

Chateaulin

XIII.

QUIMPER

XIV.

QUIMPERLE

XV.

Auray

XVI.

Vannes

XVII.

Ploermel

^VIU.

Carhaix

XIX.

Rennes

PAGE
I

13
29

107

115
129
148
166
180
190
210
22 "^
243
260

273
279

ILLUSTRATIONS

FULL-PAGE
Girl of Concarneau

Marche aux Chiffons

From a picture by Trayer.

Map of Brittany after British immigration

Dohncn, Tregastel

Drawn by M. Jean Even.

Menhir, Tregastel

Drawn by M. Jean Even.

The End of the Old Sailor

From a picture Ijy A. Le Terrec.

Peasant of Locronan .

From a photograph by M. Villard.

Rood-screen, Lamballe

From a photograph by Dr. Millard.

Tower, Lochrist

From a sketch by F. Bligh Bond.

West Front, S. Sauveur, Dinan .
From a photograph by Miss Dudgeon.

Tower, Berven

From a sketch by F. Bligh Bond.

Porch and Ossuary, Guimiliau

From a photograph by Dr. Millard.

Chateau de Keryolet

From a photograph by M. Villard.

Pardon de Fouesnant .

From a painting by A. Guillou.

S. Sauveur, Dinan

From a photograph by Dr. Millard.

Chateau de la Conninais

From a photograph by E. S. Baring-Gould.

Frontispiece
To face page i

6
14

29
40
44
49
63
65
67
69
86
96

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Fisherman's Widow

From a picture Ijy E. Renouf.

Ossuary, Questembert .

From a photograph by Mr. A. Walker.

Tower of Kreisker

From a sketch by F. Bligh Bond.

Rood-screen, Lambader

From a photograph by Dr. Millard.

A Fisher- boy

From a painting by Delobbe.

Breton Dance

From a painting by A. Leleu.x.

Rood-screen, La Roche

From a photograph by Dr. Millard.

Calvaire, GuimiHau

From a photograph by Dr. Millard.

Feasantess of Ploane

From a photograph by M. Villard.

Calvaire, Quillinen

From a painting by Jan Dargent.

Pointe du Raz

From a photograph by M. Villard.

(^uimperle

From a pholograpli by E. S. Karing-Gould.

Washerwomen, Pontaven

From a picture by Jules Breton.

Porch, S. Michel

From a photograph by E. .S. Baring-Gould.

Rood-screen, S, Fiacre

From a photograph liy Dr. Millard

Woman of Dnuarnenez

From a photograph liy M. \'il!ard.

A Fisher Maiden

From a painting by .:\. Guillou.

Chateau de Josselin

From a drawing by AI. Jean Even.

S. ITerbot

From a sketch by F. Bligh Bond.

Allee couverte, Esse

P'rom a drawing by M. Jean Even.

To face page 1 15
136
148
166
i6g

174
177
17S
180

193
204

218
220

222

243
262
276
293

Xll

ILLUSTRATIONS

IN THE TEXT

Menhir near Scaer

Arcade, S. Phililjert, Grandlieu .

Arcade, S. Martin, Lamballe

Buttress, Ravenna

,, first stage

,, enriched

,, second stage

>> 1!

,, third stage

10.

Flying Buttress

II.

Debased form, Vannes

12-

15. Sections of Piers

i6.

Ixomanesque arch

17-

Intersecting arches

i8.

A First Pointed Arch

19.

Lancet window

20.

Grouped lancets

21.

Beginning of Tracery

22.

)> >)

23. A Two-light Window at Lamballe

24. Second Pointed or Geometrical Style

25. Flamboyant Window

26. Renaissance Window

27. 28. Two-centred Arches .
29, 30. Four-centred Arches

31. Oratory of S. Kirec, Ploumanach

32. Menhir, Penmarch

^3. East Window, Pont L'Abbe

16
47
41
51
51
51
51
53
53
53
53
54
55
55
56
59
59
59
59
61
61
61
61
65
65
137
206
20S

ERRATA
i'age S5, line 10.

FOLGOET

For " 1st Sunday in September" read
"September yih and 8th."

Page 85, line li.

Belon

For " Sept, 3rd " read " September 8th."

BRITTANY

CHAPTER I

THE BRETON PEOPLE

The Breton peninsula — The dolmen-builders — The Gauls— The Roman
conquest — The migration from Britain — The secular tribe o\ plou —
The ecclesiastical tribe — Place-names— Iberian, Gaul, and Briton —
Characteristics of the Breton — The Bigauden— Classification.

BRITTANY comprises the whole of the north-
western peninsula of France from the Couesnon,
a small stream that falls into the Bay of S. Michel,
to the ocean westward, and southward from the sea
to the Loire, forming the five modern departments
of Ille-et-Vilaine, Loire-Inferieure, Cotes -du-Nord,
Finistere, and the Morbihan.

It is roughly divided into Haute and Basse Bre-
tagne ; the latter consists of that portion of Brittany
to the west in which the Breton tongue is spoken.

The entire province is peppered over with monu-
ments of rude stone blocks set on end, or forming
sepulchral chambers. So numerous are these that
there is scarce a parish that does not possess one or
more of them.

Considering that hundreds of thousands have been

2 THE BRETON PEOPLE

destroyed, it is a marvel that so many remain. They
are evidence to us that at a remote period Brittany
was densely peopled by that race which has left these
remarkable monuments wherever it went.

This race, which is called the Iberian, Ivernian, or
Silurian, was probably sallow, dark-haired, and dark-
eyed. It underlies the population of all Western Europe.
It came from Asia, travelling along the northern slopes
of the Caucasus, passed through Southern Russia,
leaving its monuments in the Crimea. It struck the
Baltic, occupied Hanover, Denmark, and Southern
Sweden. It crossed to Britain ; it spread over the
whole island, and planted itself in Ireland, where it
appears in the early records as divided into two
clans, the Firbolgs and the Tuatha da Danann.

Another branch skirted the Channel, and went
through Western P'rance, crossed the Pyrenees, and
set up its rude stone monuments in Portugal and
Spain. It crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, and is
now represented in North Africa by the Berbers and
Kabyles.*

The Gauls, at some unknown period, conquered
this people, and remained masters of the soil. They
portioned out the land in what we now call Brittany
among five tribes, which held the positions now divided
into the five departments.! The original population
was enserfed, not exterminated, and probably con-
tinued to employ for some time its own tongue.

* But the Kabyles are fair with blue eyes. See jNIacIver and
Wilkin, Libyan Notes. London, 1901.

t The Curiosoliti in C6tes-du-Nord ; the Osismi in Finistere ; Veneti
in Morbihan ; Nanneti in Loire-Inferieure ; and the Redones in Ille-
et-Vilaine.

EARLY HISTORY 3

Then came the Roman domination.

The conquerors of the world drove two main roads
through the peninsuhi, and estabhshed everywhere
cities and camps. The Gauls so rapidly assimilated
Roman civilisation, that, among the many inscrip-
tions that date from the period of the Imperial rule,
hardly more than three have been found that bear
Gaulish names.

The Gauls not only acquired the common tongue
of their masters and adopted their nomenclature, but
also assimilated their native deities to the gods of
the dominant power. A monument has been found,
now preserved at Kernuz, near Pont TAbbe, that
bears on its four faces, on two sides the Latin gods,
Jupiter and Mercury, and on the other two a couple
of native deities.

So little were the rude stone relics of the first race
respected, that the Gallo-Romans used them up as
corner-stones of their villas and camps.

For a while Armorica, as Brittany was then called,
flourished, and the numerous structural remains of
this period attest that art and culture had taken
root.

Then came the disastrous days of the later Empire,
when the provincials were crushed under exactions,
and the oppressed population fled from the tax-
gatherers to the woods and wastes. To add to the
misery, sea - rovers from Frisia and Saxony, and
Ireland as well, ravaged the coasts.

The population dwindled to such an extent that
at length it was said of the Armorican peninsula
that it was almost denuded of its inhabitants. Those

4 THE BRETON PEOPLE

who remained had no poHtical cohesion. The Gallo-
Roman dominant race had shrunk within the walls
of Rennes, Vannes, and Nantes. Such was the con-
dition of affairs, when in Britain the incursions of the
Picts and Scots (Irish) made life there unendurable,
and numerous Britons fled their native isle and
formed colonies in Armorica. So early as 461 the
British settlers were in sufficient force at the mouth
of the Loire to have a bishop of their own, who
attended a council at Tours ; and eight years after
they sent twelve thousand men under their king,
Riothimus, to the assistance of the Romans against
the Visigoths.

The emigration became still greater as the Saxons
and Angles poured over the sea, and swept the un-
happy Britons westward.

Gildas, in the sixth century, declared that the
inhabitants of his native isle fled to the mountains
before the swords of the Saxons, that others sub-
mitted and were enslaved, but that others again
crossed the sea to seek refuge elsewhere. One
colony was even formed in the north of Spain,
where it long preserved its language, its liturgy, laws,
and native bishops.

The vast majority, however, found a home in
Armorica.

An early writer in that peninsula says, " The sons
of the Britons crossing the British sea landed on
these shores at the period when the barbarous Saxons
conquered the isle. These children of a beloved race
established themselves in this country, glad to find
repose after so many sorrows. The unfortunate

EARLY HISTORY 5

Britons who had not quitted their country were
decimated by plague. Their corpses lay without
sepulture, and the major portion of the isle was
depopulated."

A writer of the ninth century pretends that the
greater portion of the inhabitants of Britain crossed
over into Armorica, but this is obviously an exaggera-
tion.

In or about 514 Rhiwal arrived from South Wales
with a large fleet in the Bay of S. Brieuc, and
founded the principality of Domnonia, and rapidly
extended his authority over the whole of Northern
Brittany.

Another swarm came from Gwent, now Monmouth-
shire, where existence had become insupportable,
owing to the incursions of the Saxons over the
Calder and Wentloog levels and the valley of the
Usk.

This Gwentian colony planted itself in the north-
west of the Armorican peninsula, and called it Leon
or Lyonesse, after the Caerleon that had been aban-
doned.

Again, another large fleet of refugees arrived,
probably from Cornwall, on the west coast, and
formed there a kingdom which was called Cernau
or Cornouaille.

By degrees Vannes, itself a Gallo- Roman city,
was enveloped by the new-comers, so that in 590 the
bishop, Regalis, complained that he was, as it were,
imprisoned by them within the walls of the city.
The Gallo-Roman prelate disliked these invaders and
their independent ways. The Britons had brought

6 THE BRETON PEOPLE

with them their own laws, customs, and organisation,
civil and ecclesiastical, as well as their own tongue.

In or about 520 the bishops of Tours, Angers, and
Rennes issued a letter to some of the British priests,
exhorting them to abandon their religious peculiarities,
and conform to the usages of the Latin Church in
Gaul.

Now it was that the peninsula ceased to be called
Armorica, and came to be known as Lesser Britain,
or Brittany.

" The British emigration gave to the Armorican
peninsula a new population of Celtic race and tongue
— a people proud, energetic, independent — which
cleared, cultivated, and Christianised the land ; in a
word, created Brittany." *

Every colony that came over was under a chieftain
of the hereditary royal race, and it proceeded to
organise itself in its . new land on the same model as
that to which it was wont in its old seat. This
organisation was tribal.

A clan in Welsh is plwgf, in Breton it is plo2i, and
the Latin equivalent is plebs.

A large number of names of places in Brittany
begin with p/o/(, p/o, pin, pic. All these were the
headquarters of the clans. In every clan the popu-
lation was located in tvcfs, or homesteads, and many
villages have names beginning with tre.

The chief himself had his caer or fortified residence,
and his lis was where he held his court of justice.

Now the Britons who came over were all Chris-
tians. The secular organisation being complete, the

* De la Borderie, Hist, de Bretagne, i. p. 279.

BRITTANY.

After the m i or ations
from britain

EARLY HISTORY 7

next thing to be done was to establish an ecclesias-
tical organisation.

Among the Celts all authority was gathered into
the hands of hereditary chiefs. Of these there were
two kinds — the military chief and the ecclesiastical
chief (the saint). Each was head of his own clan,
and had separate lands ; but the ecclesiastical tribe
was required to render military service to the secular
chief who had granted the lands to the saint ; the
ecclesiastical chief, on the other hand, was bound to
provide for the religious needs of the secular as well
as of the ecclesiastical tribe, and to educate the young
of both. A very similar organisation existed among
the Hebrews, among whom were nine secular tribes
and one that was ecclesiastical, but with this difference,
that among the Hebrews there was no passing from
a secular into a sacred tribe ; whereas among the
Celts the ecclesiastical clan was recruited from the
other.

Whether invited or not, a saint came over when
a brother or cousin had established a plon, and
demanded a grant of territory. Having been ac-
corded this, he enclosed a small area with a bank.
Within this he and his monastic family lived. This
was his lann, his church-fold, with its surrounding
sanctuary called the viiniJii. It was through the
sanctuary that the tribe of the saint recruited itself.
To it fled those who were being pursued in blood
feud, runaway slaves, aliens, in a word, all such as
could find no footing in the military clan.

The term " saint " did not necessarily mean one
who was of conspicuous holiness, but corresponds to

8 THE BRETON PEOPLE

" religieux " in France, one who had made profession
of ecclesiastical life, and was head of a sacred tribe.

A list of those words which belong to this early
organisation, and which enter into composition in so
many place-names, may be useful : —

Bo, bod, bot = bodd (Welsh), a habitation, a cottage.

Car, ker = caer (Welsh), a fortress.

Din = dinas (Welsh), a palace, a castle.

Lan, lam, la, le = llan (Welsh), an- ecclesiastical

enclosure, a church.
Loq, lou = locus penitentiae (Latin), a hermitage.
Peniti= do. do. do.

Plou, plo, plu, ple = pl\vgf (Welsh), a clan.
Pou, peu, pe = pagus (Latin), a territory occupied

by a clan.
Tre = tref (Welsh), a farm, a settlement or hamlet.

To each of these is appended a distinguishing
word, either descriptive or from the name of the
founder.

A few more words may be given — bre is a hill ; coct,
a wood ; guen, white ; lien, old ; vienez, mountain ;
pen^ a head ; poul, a bay or pool ; ros, a moor.

On the Armorican soil there were now three
peoples, of whom two alone were distinct — the
Iberian, probably dusky, and the Celt, fair. The Celt
was divided into two branches, the Gaul and the
Briton,* no further distinguished than are the Scan-

* Great confusion has been caused by a certain school of French
ethnologists adopting Celt as the distinguishing name for the Iberian,
as opposed to the Gaul. I employ the term in its usual and accepted
signification in England.

ETHNOLOGY 9

dinavians from the Germans, having similar build,
colouring, and language, as well as institutions ; but
the Gaul had been so Romanised as to have lost his
native tongue and organisation.

We would therefore expect to find but two distinct
types in Brittany ; but, in fact, there has existed such
a fusion by intermarriage, that it is only in remote
parts that the types remain in their purity. The
original canvas has been embroidered over ; but so
enduring is it that it shows through what has been
laid over it, and the general type of the Breton to-day
is that of the Cornish, Irish, and Welsh, rather dark
than fair. Red and fair hair exist, and blue eyes are
met with, but not commonly.

In the interior of Brittany the people are small,
the hair is dark, and most have brown eyes. This
population occupies one of the poorest and most
barren parts of France, a country that has always
been protected by its wretchedness from invasion ;
whose sterility has invited no strangers to settle
there, and is one that receives annually such as can
find no work elsewhere. The inhabitants live in a
condition which is not that of savages, but not the
life of civilised people. They continue from genera-
tion to generation in almost complete indifference
to all progress, and cling tenaciously to ancestral
customs. This is the Cornouaille, which was the
last to accept the Christianity of the British settlers.
It is there that the most infantile superstitions hang
on, and where patriotism is parochial. These dusky
people of short stature are apparently pure representa-
tives of the Iberian stock that raised the dolmens.

lo THE BRETON PEOPLE

But it has been supposed and asserted roundly
that there are traces among them of a still earlier
type — of a people resembling the Mongols. Of this
I have my doubts.

The Begauds, or Bigauden, are pointed out as of
the same type. These people occupy the promontory
of Cap Sizun, east of Ouimper, from Douarnenez to
Ploumelin. The women are short in stature, solid in
build, and run like Indians and other wild races on
the ball of the foot. They keep their mouths open
and expose their teeth, which meet ; their jaws are
not over- or under-hung, a peculiarity noticeable also
in Western Ireland. But the men show no peculiarity,
and I am inclined to believe that the singular appear-
ance of these people is due to other causes.

A very keen observer, Mr. Julian Ralph, thus
comments on the people of the Land's End district
in Cornwall : " Stocky, short, and dark were the men,
with jet eyes and black hair. The women possessed
sharp little faces, with staring eyes, and were all built
out around the hips with ever so many petticoats,
and many a touch of bright colour they wore. They
are a race apart. They are the Bretons — are the
oldest people left, except a few Basques, perhaps, in
Western Europe."

Precisely the same type is found in Ireland, in
Kerry. It is that of the primitive race driven to the
extreme West.

What gives to the women of the Bigauden district
their peculiar feature is the way in which the hair is
strained upwards from early childhood, and bound
down by a belt passing under the chin. This causes

CHARACTERISTICS ii

them to hold back their chhis against their breasts,
and to acquire the trick of keeping their mouths
open. The habit of wearing as many skirts as they
can put on Hkewise gives to them a dwarfed and
thick build.*

Along the littoral — except the Bigauden district —
we find a people taller, fair, and with a large per-
centage of blue eyes.f

A great difference in character is noticeable be-
tween the people of Finistere and of the Morbihan.
The former are grave almost to sternness, the latter
are vivacious. The former have longer skulls than
the latter. Fair hair and blue eyes are rarely found
far inland. In Leon the pagani are looked upon
with some aversion, as having lived by wrecking.
The Leonese are a tall, dark, and saturnine people,
wearing black garments.

In conclusion we may sum up our results as
follows : —

In Brittany are found —

1. A brown, long-headed race with hazel eyes, short
of stature, grave and sad in character, the repre-
sentative of those who set up the dolmens.

2. A mixed, vivacious, round-headed people, the
remains of the Gaul, much intermingled with the
Iberian in the French-speaking parts of the Cotes-
du-Nord and in Morbihan.

* See an article by M. le Carquet, "Elude Ethnographique sur les
Eigaudens," in Bullet i)i dc la Soc. Arch, dit Finistere. P. xxvii., 1900.

t The percentage is ihirty-lvs'o blue to tliirt)--seven brown. See an
article, " Ethnologic Armoricaine," by Dr. Guibert, Coigres Celtiquc
Inleritationale, October, 1S67.

12 THE BRETON PEOPLE

3. The tall, fair-haired, clear-skinned, and light-
eyed descendant of the British colonist on the sea-
board.

That the colonist brought over his serfs with him
is probable enough. As in Wales, so in Brittany,
the pure-blooded Celt was the noble ruling race, and
this has been largely submerged by the rising, irre-
sistible tide of the Iberian blood.

CHAPTER II
PREHISTORIC STONES

Numerous rude stone monuments — By whom erected — The religion of
the dolmen -builders — The Goddess of Death — Classification of
monuments — i. The dolmen — 2. The menhir — -3. The align-
ments— 4. The cromlech — Persistence of pagan ideas — The fusion
of paganism with Christianity — How it came about — Transforma-
tion of the cult of wells and of stones — Oblations of cattle — Of
wax — Rubbing against stones — The chapel at Langon — The dolmen
of Plouaret — The cult of the dead — The woman who visited purga-
tory— The Ankou — The Venus of Quinipili — Breton Christianity
of life.

NO portion of Europe is so densely strewn with
rude stone monuments as the two departments
of Finist^re and Morbihan, There may be finer
"covered avenues" in the sandstone district of Maine-
et- Loire and Vienne ; nor is there any circle com-
parable with Stonehenge ; but the alignments of
Carnac and Erdeven and the menhir of Locmariaquer
are without their equals elsewhere. The sculptured
slabs of Gavr Inis have their analogues only at New
Grange, near Drogheda.

The rude stone monuments belong, as already
stated, to the so-called Iberian race, which arrived in
Europe from Central Asia by the northern slopes of
the Caucasus.

14 PREHISTORIC STONES

On reaching France, this people occupied the west
coast, penetrating-, however, some distance into the
interior, and strewing the elevated plateaux cleft by
the Tarn, the Lot, and the Dordogne with their sepul-
chres. They traversed Spain and Portugal, crossed
the Straits of Gibraltar, and covered Northern Africa
with their monuments in historic times.

The religion of this remarkable race consisted in
the worship of ancestors, in this point closely re-
sembling that of the Chinese.

The grave was the most sacred spot on earth, the
centre of the tribe, inalienable ; and the spirit of the
dead was supposed to animate the obelisk erected
to commemorate him, and to expect and insist on
oblations being offered at his tomb. But there were
deities as well — a Goddess of Death certainly, whose
rude image has been found guarding the subterranean
sepulchres met with in the chalk district of Marne,
and discovered by the Baron de Baye. She reappears
on a dolmen in the department of Garde.

The monuments that remain in such abundance
have all their significance in connexion with the
worship of the dead.

They may be divided under four heads : —

I. The dolmoi is a stone table supported on several
uprights. It was a sepulchral chamber, and was
originally buried under a mound.

The largest dolmens, which consist of passages
of this construction, are in French termed allies
couvertes. These were family or tribal ossuaries,
and the dead were laid in them unburnt, wath their
weapons and personal ornaments. The weapons are

MONUMENTS . . 15

of polished stone, but in some of the later examples
of bronze.

The primitive people who reared these mansions
of the dead held that every inanimate object had its
soul, and to liberate this spirit the ornament or
weapon was broken, thus enabling the spirit of the
dead man to enjoy his tools, weapons, and decora-
tions also in spirit. Consequently the objects dis-
covered in the dolmens are generally fractured.

When fresh interments had to be made, and the
mausoleum was tolerably full, no scruple was felt in
thrusting back the earlier interments to make space
for the new-comers. On the anniversary of the death,
or at the solstices, it was customary for the relations
to bring out the bones of their immediate relatives,
scrape them, and replace them in the tomb, in the
order that they supposed they ought to occupy.
They were sometimes mistaken, placing a right foot
to a left shank, or the hands not in correct position.

Some of the allces couveries are of considerable
length, are divided into compartments, and are
covered with enormous slabs.

2. The menhir is an upright stone, standing alone ;
but one cannot be certain that it is not a solitary
stone spared from a row that has been destroyed.
In England this is nearly always the case. Some of
the Brittany menhirs are very lofty. The obelisk at
Dol is 28 feet high above the soil, and is sunk
16 feet below the surface. The Men-er-H'roech at
Locmariaquer was 64 feet high, but was shattered by
a stroke of lightning.

At S. Samson by Dinan is a menhir inclined,

PREHISTORIC STONES

treasure-seekers having undermined it. This menhir
was in connexion with a set of stone-rows that must
have stretched for some miles, as they are met with
much mutilated in an adjoining parish.

Sometimes these upright stones have hollows
worked in them — cup-marks — that have been objects

^4^-^

^<X^^^.

FIG. I. MENHIR NEAR SCAER

of much speculation. Councils of the Church in
Gaul expressly forbade the anointing of these
obelisks, and to the present day in remote localities
the peasants still daub them with honey, wax, or oil.

The Khashias of the Brahmapootra, who are
apparently descendants of a branch of the same
Iberian race that took a direction south when migra-
ting, to this day erect dolmens and set up menhirs —
the former as mausoleums of the dead, the latter as

MONUMENTS 17

memorials of the deceased, and these they daub with
blood or paint.

3. The alignment is a series of parallel rows of
upright stones erected in honour of a dead chief, each
household contributing a stone. To this day the
Bedawin, when he visits the shrine of a Moslem saint,
erects a rude block as a token that he has visited and
paid his homage to the deceased.

On Dartmoor, where there are over a quarter of a
hundred of these stone-rows, all without exception
start from a tomb. In one instance, where three
bodies had been buried in as many stone boxes in
one cairn, three rows start from the same mound.
The alignments of Carnac and Erdeven and of S.
Briac, etc., have been too much mutilated for us to
be able to trace them throughout their course, and
determine whence they started and where they end.

The custom was never wholly discontinued. With
the advent of the Britons menhirs continued to be set
up, and were called lechSy some bearing inscriptions,
but many without. Indeed, it was usual for a saint
when he travelled to take his lech about with him,
ready to be planted at his head when he died. A
great number of these remain,

4. What was the object of the circle of upright
stones, called by the French cromlech, is not so easy
to determine. Systematic investigation has not been
made of such as exist in Brittany.

On Dartmoor those that have been subjected to

investigation reveal that they were the places where

the dead were burned. But these pertain to a later

period than the monuments of Brittany, which were

i8 PREHISTORIC STONES

set up, in the vast majority of cases, before cremation
came into fashion. It is, however, probable that the
circles of upright stones served as gathering-places
for the clan, and for funeral feasts and the equinoctial
banquets.

To this day, when the Breton peasants prepare
the bonfires for the village feast or for the Mid-
summer Eve, they set up a ring of stones about the
pyre.

It may be asked, Do there remain among the
people any traces of their ancient paganism? It is
hardly possible to deny that there do — and these
extensively.

A vast amount of Breton religious practice is but
a relic of prehistoric paganism, such as was practised
from time immemorial to the coming of the British
colonists and the conversion of the natives to
Christianity. But these practices have all assumed
a Christian complexion.

It will be well to understand how this came about.

The Church, as a corporate body, had no hand in
the compromise, which was effected by the clergy
in country places. These, finding that their flocks
stubbornly persisted in certain usages, such as the
veneration of wells and trees, and in superstitious
practices associated with the menhirs, in spite of
remonstrance, were in a dilemma. To appeal to the
ecclesiastical and secular authorities to exercise com-
pulsion, was to render themselves odious to their
parishioners ; and they may well have doubted
whether an exhibition of force could eradicate deep
conviction and abolish ancestral customs. Accord-

THE CLERGY 19

ingly, each village priest, acting on his own judgment
as to what was best for his flock and conducive to
peace, did what he could to give to the usages a
colour which would render them unobjectionable,
and save his parishioners from incurring chastisement
by the ecclesiastical or secular arm. Moreover, it
must be remembered that diocesan seminaries did
not exist till little more than two centuries ago.
Throughout the Middle Ages the clergy, recruited
from among the people, lived among them ; and at
home, when their minds were forming, they obtained
a smattering of Latin and the rudiments of theology
from the village priest, unless sufficiently well off to
be able to go to a university — and this was not
possible for a Breton student who could speak only
his Celtic tongue.

When one of these men was ordained and sent
to minister among a flock of ignorant and super-
stitious peasants, he was himself hardly removed
from their ignorance, and was im.pregnated with their
superstitions.

These were the men who dedicated holy wells,
cut crosses on menhirs, and turned dolmens into
chapels. I am not prepared to say that they did
not act aright. They certainly did what was charit-
able ; and if, being a little ahead of the superstitious,
they tolerated the superstitions, it was because they
trusted that in time the population would be weaned
from these customs, and put away childish things.
But that time has not yet come, and the reason is to
be seen in the protracted agony through which
Brittany passed for two hundred years, and in the

20 PREHISTORIC STONES

obstruction offered by the Breton language to the
clergy becoming as learned and intelligent as those
of France.

Moreover, the clergy had good examples to follow.
S. Samson found the Cornish natives dancing around
a tall stone, and he did not break it down ; he con-
tented himself with marking a cross on it. S. Patrick
learned that the Irish venerated a well in which they
soaked the bones of a Druid ; he turned the well
into a baptistery, and gave them Christian relics to
venerate instead of pagan phosphate of lime.

In 658 a council assembled at Nantes decreed —
" As in remote places and in woodlands there stand
certain stones which the people often worship, and
at which vows are made, and to which oblations are
presented — we decree that they be all cast down and
concealed in such a place that their worshippers may
not be able to find them."

Now the carrying out of their order was left to the
country parsons, and partly because they had them-
selves been brought up to respect these stones, and
partly because the execution of the decree would
have brought down a storm upon their heads, they
contented themselves with putting a cross on top of
the stones.

This has saved the great menhir of the Champ
Dolent near Dol, as it certainly has many another.
At Tregastel is one that has its top rudely shaped
into a cross, and its face sculptured over with the
instruments of the Passion, that are periodically re-
painted in staring colours.

At Pouance a hole cut in the face of a menhir has

^^i^r

JIENHIR, TREGASTEL

CUSTOMS 21

an image of the Virgin put into it, and the oblations
once offered to the stone are now directed to the
statue.

In ancient times sacrifices were made of cocks and
oxen at certain shrines — now they are still presented,
but it is to the chapels of saints. S. Herbot receives
cows' tails, and these may be seen heaped upon his
altar in Loqeffret. At Coadret as many as seven
hundred are offered on the day of the " pardon."
i\t S. Nicolas-des-Eaux, it is S. Nicodemus who in
his chapel receives gifts of whole oxen, and much
the same takes place at Carnac.

Formerly the menhir was beplastered with oil and
honey and wax, and this anointing of the stones
was condemned by the bishops. In certain places
the local clergy succeeded in diverting the practice
to the churches. There are still some in Lower
Brittany whose exterior walls are strung with wax
lines arranged in festoons and patterns.*

In some places childless women still rub themselves
against menhirs, expecting thereby to be cured of
barrenness, but in others, instead, they rub themselves
against stone images of saints. Near Carnac is a
menhir, at which a singular ceremony took place till
comparatively recently, and may perhaps still be
practised in secret. A married couple that have no
family repair to this stone when the moon is full,
strip themselves stark naked and course one another
round it a prescribed number of times, whilst their
relations keep guard against intrusion at a respectful
distance.

* Rumengol, Kergoat in Kernevel, Combrit.

22 PREHISTORIC STONES

At Langon, in C6tes-du-Nord, is a chapel that was
a Roman structure dedicated to the Goddess of Love.
The people held it in such esteem that in 838 it was
turned into a chapel, and the Fanuin Veneris was
converted into a Capella Sit. Veneris. In the apse
was a classic fresco representing the goddess rising
from the waves surrounded by Cupids. This was
whitewashed over and painted with an ecclesiastical
subject, probably the martyrdom of S. Fingar, who
was called S. Vener. Recently the plaster has flaked
off and disclosed the pagan fresco, and the chapel has
been dedicated to S. Agatha. Thus the patroness
had first to change her sex whilst retaining her name,
and finally to resume her sex and drop her name.

At Plouaret is a dolmen turned into a chapel of
the Seven Saints ; * thus the cult of the prehistoric
dead in the monument has been replaced by that of
several local patrons.

Near Plouaret, moreover, is a headless statue of a
horseman trampling on a mythical monster, not a
S. George, but a statue of some Gallo-Roman deity,
that is still resorted to, and is still believed to work
miracles. Those who are paralysed are forced up on
to the horse's back, and several cures are recorded.
Other like statues exist ; all have been mutilated by
the clergy who endeavour to put down this pagan cult,
but without success.

Still, as of old, the cult of the dead is the prevail-
ing religion of Lower Brittany, especially of Finistere.

* The Seven Saints of Brittany are SS. Samson, Malo, Tugdual,
Brioc, Paul of Leon, Corentin, and Padarn ; but in the chapel the
saints are the Seven Sleepers.

THE LAND OF THE DEAD 23

All observant travellers, from Cambry downwards,
have noticed this,

" The idea of Death is everywhere present to the
imagination of the natives, and seems to have haunted
it through long centuries. . . . Nowhere does one see
more numerous and more beautiful memorials of the
dead, ossuaries, reliquaries, ex votos, and Calvaries.
The inscriptions that meet the eye on all sides testify
to this obsession. Everywhere, under one form or
another, we have a Christianised Worship of the Dead
which has its roots in the Druidic necropolis, turning
the soil of Brittany into one vast charnel-house." *

M. Anatole le Braz, who has gathered into one
volume the ghastly legends and traditions of Death
that pervade Lower Brittany,-]- has shown us how the
Ankoii, the Divinity of Death, is still believed in and
feared.

Marillier, who wrote a preface to this work, says
that Lower Brittany is before all else the Land of
the Dead. There the deceased dwell intermingled
with the living. " Souls do not remain enclosed in
the tombs, they wander at night on the high-roads
and in the lonely lanes. They haunt the fields and the
moors, thick as blades of grass or as grains of sand
on the shore." They possess an invincible attach-
ment to their old homes. " They revisit their former
habitations in the silence of the night, and from the
lit-clos they can be observed crouched around the
hearth, where the brands are expiring."

" Townsman," said an old woman to M. le Braz,

* NicOLAl (Alex.), Eti Bretagne, 1893, p. 282,
t Le Braz, La Lt'gende de la Mort, 1892.

24 PREHISTORIC STONES

" have you come here to see how we honour our
dead ? Why did you not come forty years ago ?
Then we went in procession about the tombs and in-
voked the dead by their names, in a commemorative
litany, calHng on our dead in the order in which they
laid them down. There were long memories in those
days. The father transmitted what he knew to his
son, as the most precious lot of his inheritance. The
saying then went, You will be wiser dead than living,
and we had then a continual solicitude for the de-
parted, so that when we, in turn, became ancestors,
we should not be forgotten. It is better to have the
goodwill of the anon than their hostility ; their resent-
ments are terrible, and their revenges inevitable."

Of this same old woman a strange thing was said. The
gravedigger told her that he had heard her husband
turning and twisting in his grave, as one in bed bitten
by fleas, and that he was certain his soul was not
happy. " I will go and see," replied the woman, and
she vanished from the neighbourhood for a twelve-
month. When she reappeared, she was completely
changed past recognition, her fresh tint was gone and
she was withered, and her skin exhaled a savour of
fire. She would tell to none where she had been, but
everyone in the parish held that she had visited the
soul of her dead husband in purgatory.*

On All Souls' Eve dishes of cream are set out for

the dead upon the table, for the souls are supposed

then to revisit their old homes, and expect a meal.

But not only does the Breton think that the anon, the

dead, wanders at will, but there are fev/ who have not

* Paqiic if /slaiide. Paris, Levy, 1897.

SUPERSTITION 25

seen the Ankou, Death itself, or heard Death's coach
travelling over the roads picking up souls on its way.

The Bretons will spend whole nights at the graves
of their kinsmen, and pour over them libations of
milk.* If some article be lost, a Breton places a
small coin on the grave of an ancestor, with the
request that he will prowl about at night in quest of
it. If a peasant desires to be roused early in the
morning, he leaves word with his dead kinsman, sure
that the ghost will awake him at the proper hour.-|-

The graveyard is as truly the centre of the coni-
inune as the dolmen was of the prehistoric tribe.
The dead who lie there are by no means cut off from
the world ; the voices of the living reach them in
muffled tones ; they know that they are not for-
gotten ; they are associated with every event of
importance in the family. Nowhere else, and at
no period, have people lived in such familiarity with
Death. The consciousness of the presence of the
dead never leaves the people. The evening of a
wedding is like a funeral wake. The betrothed meet
at the graves of their dead, and seal their vows over
the tombs. It is but of quite recent times that the
association of the departed with the affairs of the
living has become less intimate. The baozalan
charged with soliciting the hand of a young girl
of her parents, on having received their consent,
betook himself to the ossuary, to the bones of the
kinsmen, and solicited their concurrence.]:

* Cambry, Voyage dans Le Finistcre^ ed. 1836, p. 128.

t Ibid., p. 173.

:J: Le Goffic (C), Stir la Cote, Paris, 1897, p. 70.

26 PREHISTORIC STONES

In the Isle of Sein the evening salutation is not
Bon soir, but " Joy to the souls ! "

One of the most curious relics of paganism in the
country is the so-called Venus of Quinipili. This is
a statue of a nude female, that stood on a grassy
mound. Sick people were brought to it. The palsied,
those suffering from gout or rheumatism, rubbed their
limbs against the image, and made offerings to it.
A large basin scooped out in granite stood near it,
and in this women who had been confined were wont
to bathe. Unmarried girls presented gifts to the
image to obtain husbands. In 1668 Count Pierre
de Lannion, who had built a castle at Quinipili,
transferred the idol to the court of his chateau as
a suitable ornament, but as it was not a little
indecent, he set a sculptor to make it more respect-
able.

The image is 6 feet 6 inches high. It is entirely
nude with the exception of a band about the head
and a sort of stole that falls from the neck half-way
down the thighs. The figure is erect, the legs
engaged in the block out of which it is carved ; the
arms are bent at a right angle and the hands are
laid on the belly, one above the other. The eyes
are feebly indicated, the nose is flat, and the mouth
marked by a line.

The cult of this idol continued through the Middle
Ages, and the clergy in vain thundered against the
indecent rites offered before it. In 1660 the Bishop
of Vannes ordered that the idol should be destroyed.
Next year a mission was held at Baud, not far distant,
and at the request of the missioners, Claude, Count

THE WOMAN OF COUARDE 27

of Lannion, had the statue rolled down into the
river and a cross erected on the mound where it had
stood. That year of 1661 no rain fell, and the corn
crop failed. The peasants declared that this was due
to the dishonour done to " Er Groach Houard," the
Old Woman of Couarde.

In 1664 the statue was dragged out of the river
by oxen harnessed to it, and it was laid on the bank.
It had been somewhat injured by its fall, and by
hammers which had broken the cheeks and breasts,
when thrown down and defaced at the request of the
clergy. In its prostrate and mutilated condition it
continued to receive the cult it had been given pre-
viously for some years. The Bishop of Vannes again
intervened, in 1670, and entreated the Count of
Lannion to have it smashed to pieces. He sent
workmen to break it. They knocked off one of the
arms and a breast, and then rolled it back into the
river Blavet.

In 1696 Pierre, son of Claude de Lannion, had it
fished up again to ornament his new castle. He had
it recut and placed on a pedestal, on which were en-
graved pseudo-classic inscriptions, asserting that this
was the Armorican Venus which Julius Ceesar had
erected in fulfilment of a vow.

The peasants, indignant at having their idol re-
moved and shut up in a seigneurial castle, invoked the
aid of the Due de Rohan to institute legal proceed-
ings against the Count, but the latter gained the case
after a process that lasted three years and concluded
in 1 70 1. But this did not satisfy the devotees of the
image. Repeatedly they broke by force into the

28 PREHISTORIC STONES

castle to pay their homage to the idol and solicit its
assistance. Ogee in 1773 assures us that at that time
oblations of money continued to be offered to this
Armorican Venus.

The statue still stands on the site where placed
in 1696; if it receives homage still, this is done in
profound secrecy.

" One must always insist on this," says an acute
observer, speaking of Catholic Brittany, " the people
have remained pagans to the marrow of their bones.
The religious sentiment is there ; but under the
name of religion one must not imagine a creed,
a connected system of doctrine, clear and precise,
but an extraordinary jumble of rites and formulas
and ceremonial usages, badly enchained, and these as
ancient as the race itself." *

This is only to some extent true ; one thing has
been left out of sight in this stricture passed on this
religious people. Christianity — that is. Christian
morality — has steeped their lives in its principles.
There is drunkenness ; it is almost their only vice.
Their religion has made them honest, God-fearing,
tender-hearted, and leading pure lives. They have
assimilated the morality of the gospel if they have
got but a confused notion of its doctrines.

* Le Goffic, op. cit., p. 160.

I'l'A^ANT Kf I.nCKU.'.A"

CHAPTER III
THE HISTORY OF BRITTANY

Necessity for knowing something of Breton history — The British immi-
grants— The kingdoms formed — Conmore — Nominoe— Constitutes
the independence of Brittany, civil and ecclesiastical— Solomon —
Ravages of the Northmen — English invited to interfere — Jean de
Montfort — Charles de Blois^The war of succession — The Com-
panies— The Battle of Thirty — Bertrand du Guesclin — The Duchess
Anne — Brittany becomes a province of France — Fusion — Succession
of dukes.

TO get an idea of the conformation of a district
and the flow of the rivers, it is expedient to
ascend elevated points, whence a panorama of the
land may be obtained. It is impossible in the brief
space of a chapter to give more than a general con-
ception of the history of the duchy or kingdom of
Brittany ; yet without a comprehensive survey the
visitor cannot properly appreciate what he sees, nor
will the reader of this book know where to place the
several historic episodes that occur in the description
of the several localities.

One looks on a face, and that face at once acquires
an interest in our eyes if it bear the traces of some
great sorrow that has swept over the past life, giving
to it sweetness and strength. And so is it with
towns. They acquire at once an attraction when

30 HISTORY OF BRITTANY

we can discern in them the traces of history, the
impress of sore distresses, perhaps of glorious
achievements.

I will take a few salient features of Breton history
and indicate the lines of connection, so as to enable
the reader to obtain something of historic perspective.

As has been already said, Armorica was occupied
during the fifth and sixth centuries by successive
swarms of immigrants from Britain, who brought
over with them their own language, institutions, and
ecclesiastical as well as secular organisations. These
colonists succeeded in changing the appellation of
the peninsula from Armorica to Lesser Britain, and
in totally changing the language spoken therein, and
impressing upon the natives their own tongue, which
was identical with that spoken in Wales and Corn-
wall.

At first the new settlers recognised their depend-
ence on the princes of the mother country,* but
this attachment relaxed, and very speedily two Breton
kingdoms were constituted, that of Domnonia and
that of Cornubia, or Cornouailles. The former com-
prised the whole of the north coast from the Couesnon
to the western sea, and was bounded on the south by
that chain of mountains that runs from Montauban
to Bourbriac, and thence continues as the Monts
dArree to the sea above Brest. The south-western
coast land constituted the kingdom of Cornouaille
to the river Elle.

* " Fuit vir unus in Britanicia ultra mare, nomine Rigaldus, qui in
nostra primus venit citra mare habitare provincia, qui dux fuit Britoiium
ultra et citra mare usqtie ad mortem." Vita Sti. Leonori,

TROUBLOUS TIMES 31

The interior of the peninsula was occupied by the
vast forest of Brecihen. The early history is so per-
plexed that I shall not trouble the reader with it till
we arrive at the time of Jonas, King of Domnonia,
who died in 540, He left an only son, a boy Judual ;
and Conmore, Count of Poher,-|- who married the
widow of Jonas, undertook the charge of the young
prince, and the regency during his minority. He
was an ambitious man, and his wife suspected that
he had designs on the life of her son. She accord-
ingly sent him to the court of Childebert, at Paris,
where he was retained in surveillance. About the
year 550 S. Samson appeared at Dol, ostensibly to
found a monastery there, but actually to organise an
insurrection against Conmore. He went ever and
anon to Jersey, where he drilled soldiers ; and he
sent his monks about Domnonia to incite to rebel-
lion. Then he visited Paris, and with difficulty
induced Childebert to release Judual. When all was
ripe the Bretons rose against the usurper, who was
defeated in three battles, and was killed in 555.

The history of Brittany continued to be one of
fratricidal conflict and slaughter from generation to
generation. According to Celtic custom every prin-
cipality was broken up into separate portions for
every son of a king on that king's death ; and then
the most masterful of the heirs cut the throats of his
brethren, unless they succeeded in putting the sea
between themselves and him. Usually they took
refuge in Wales or Cornwall.

t Poher is the basin between the Monts d'Arree and the Montagnes
Noir.

32 HISTORY OF BRITTANY

At last Nominoe, a very remarkable man, who had
been invested with the Heutenancy of Brittany by
Louis the Pious, in 826, resolved on shaking off the
Frank yoke and establishing the independence of
his country. He remained faithful to the Frank
emperor so long as Louis lived, but on his death,
seeing that the empire was crumbling to pieces, and
that the desired opportunity had come, he raised the
standard of revolt. He was warmly seconded by
S. Convoyon, Abbot of Redon. Louis had been
succeeded by Charles the Bald in 840, who had in-
herited the crown of Charlemagne, but none of his
abilities.

In 845 the preparations of Nominoe were com-
plete, and in a series of battles, in which he was
uniformly successful, he achieved his purpose. He
further drove the Franks out of Nantes and Rennes,
and definitely united these counties to Brittany. He
did more. He repelled the Northmen who had de-
scended on and were ravaging the country.

Having established himself supreme, he reorganised
Brittany ecclesiastically into seven dioceses, whereof
Dol was one, which he erected into an archbishopric,
with jurisdiction over the six suffragan sees, and
then was crowned king. Nominoe died in 851.

His eldest son was Erispoe, who inherited the
crown, and continued the work of his father, repelled
Charles the Bald, who made a new attempt to re-
cover Brittany, and was likewise successful against
the Northmen.

Nominoe had left two other sons, Gurwan and
Pasquitien, and a nephew, Solomon.

DEATH OF SOLOMON 33

This latter assassinated his cousin Erispoe before
the altar of the church of Penpont, and assumed the
crown. He proceeded to buy off the Northmen, and
promise a tribute to Charles the Bald.

But although Solomon had gained the object of
his ambition, his conscience troubled him on account
of his sacrilege and murder, and he sent a deputation
to Rome to buy his absolution.

Now the Archbishop of Tours had claimed juris-
diction over Brittany, a jurisdiction that had only
been acknowledged by Nantes, Rennes, and Vannes ;
and the Pope viewed with a jealous eye the at-
tempt of Nominoe to establish a Breton Church on
independent lines. He accordingly agreed to absolve
Solomon at the price of undoing the ecclesiastical
organisation of his uncle Nominoe. To this Solomon,
caring only for his own soul, readily consented. But
the Bretons were by no means disposed to have
Nominee's work destroyed, and they rose in revolt
under Pasquitien, the son of the late king ; and
Solomon, finding himself deserted on all hands, fled
with his son for refuge to a church, out of which he
and the boy were dragged and both killed (874).
For some unaccountable reason the Bretons have
regarded this despicable assassin as a saint. His
violent death has been taken to have expiated his
crime and his betrayal of the national liberties.

The death of Solomon was the signal for the
division of Brittany, and for internecine strife, in the
midst of which the northern rovers recommenced
their ravages, which they carried on unmolested, as
there was no central authority to oppose them.

34 HISTORY OF BRITTANY

The desolation became so general, and the misery
and insecurity so great, that many Bretons, together
with Mathuedoi, Count of Poher, escaped to England
and threw themselves on the protection of Athelstan,

But in 937 Alan Barbetorte, son of Mathuedoi,
returned, and carried on a successful campaign
against the Northmen, whom he defeated and put
to the sword.

The history of Brittany continued to be one of
sanguinary internal strife, alternating with fights
against the Normans, until the reign of Conan III.
(i 1 12-48). Conan had married Matilda, daughter
of Henry I. of England, and had by her two
children, Hoel and Bertha. Suspecting his wife of
infidelity, on his death-bed he protested that Hoel
was no son of his. Bertha, by her first husband,
had a son, Conan, who rose in revolt against his
stepfather. One part of Brittany acknowledged
Conan, another recognised Eudo de Pornhoet, the
husband of Bertha. Conan summoned Henry II.
of England to his aid, and to secure his assistance
gave his infant daughter Constance to Geoffrey
Plantagenet, the son of the English king.

This was the beginning of that continuous series
of civil wars in which the English took part, and
which lasted from the close of the twelfth century
to that of the fifteenth — three hundred years, during
which the English burnt and ravaged Brittany on
one pretext after another.

Constance was the mother of Arthur, who was
killed by our King John in 1203.

The despicable Conan IV. abdicated in 1166, and

STRIFE AND BLOODSHED 35

consigned his duchy to Henry II. The English king
got hold of Alix, daughter of Eudo and Bertha,
outraged her, and the girl died of shame the same
day. This roused all Brittany into a fury of resent-
ment, and Henry carried everywhere fire and steel.
After his death the unhappy duchy was frightfully
maltreated by Richard, misnamed the lion-hearted,
but who really had the heart of a tiger.

The miserable history of strife and bloodshed con-
tinued. We must pass on to the death of Alan II.,
in 13 12. He had been twice married. By his first
wife he had three sons, John III., who succeeded
him ; Guy, Count of Penthievre ; and Peter, who died
childless. By his second wife, daughter of Robert
of Dreux, Countess of Montfort, he had one son and
five daughters. The son was Jean de Montfort. The
name must not be forgotten. It was to be of terrible
import to Brittany.

John III. died in 1341 without issue. His two
brothers, Guy and Peter, had predeceased him, but
Guy left an only daughter, Jeanne, who was married
to Charles de Blois, nephew of Philip V. of France.
John HI. bequeathed his rights to this niece, with
disregard to the claims of Jean de Montfort, his
nephew.

No sooner was he dead than an explosion ensued.

From 1 341 to 1365, that is to say, for four-and-
twenty years, the soil of Brittany was trampled by
contending forces and drenched with blood. The
pretenders to the ducal crown were of the same age,
and both belonged to the same house ; both bore
the same arms, and had the same battle-cry. The

36 HISTORY OF BRITTANY

soldiers engaged on both sides were of the same
country, and spoke the same language. Families
were divided, and fought in opposed armies. Jean
de Montfort was a brave, handsome, and chivalrous
hero ; Charles de Blois a model of narrow piety, a
saint according to a perverted conception. Turn and
turn about each was prisoner to the other ; each one
day wore the crown, and the next the manacles. If
the Bretons had been suffered to settle their differ-
ences by themselves, they would speedily have
reached a solution ; but behind the parties stood
France on one side, England on the other. Charles
de Blois had at his back Philip de Valois and France,
and behind Jean de Montfort was Edward III. of
England.

The conflict began with a disaster for the latter.
The Duke of Normandy (afterwards John II.) at
the head of 10,000 men surrounded Nantes, in which
was Montfort. A conflict of a hundred knights on
each side was proposed and accepted, and took place
outside the walls. The Bretons fared worst; all
were killed except thirty. The Duke of Normandy
ordered these to be decapitated, and their heads
to be flung over the walls into the town. This
barbarous proceeding produced such a panic in the
city that the gates were thrown open, and Jean de
Montfort became a prisoner.

But his cause was not irretrievably lost, for his
heroic wife, Jeanne of Flanders, had the courage of
an Amazon, and at her entreaty Edward of England
promised his assistance. She confided to his charge
her little son, Jean, to be fostered away from the

CHARLES DE BLOIS Z7

risks of civil war. The story of the two sieges of
Hennebon shall be told later on in this book.

Charles de Blois was as great a contrast as might
well be discovered to the gallant Jean de Montfort.

He always moved hung about with rosaries, relics,
and scapularies. Every day he recited the Hours of
the Blessed Virgin and the Office of the Cross. He
delayed military operations of the utmost importance
till he had gone through his devotional routine. He
fasted on bread and water two days in the week, and
wore sackcloth next his skin, and three horse-hair
cords twisted and knotted about his body. He
literally swarmed with vermin.* He put pebbles
between his toes and under his soles. He scourged
himself every Friday with a spiked cat-o'-nine-tails,
and belaboured his breast with his fists till it was
black and blue. In such weighty matters as truth-
fulness, chastity, and humanity he left much to be
desired.

This objectionable personage was as lacking in
military ability as in manly virtues, and his affairs
would have gone hopelessly wrong had he not been
assisted by men of some knowledge of the art of
war — notably Don Luis of Spain, who was as cruel
as he was skilled. Luis took Conquet, and put the
whole garrison to the sword. Guingamp suffered
the same fate. Guerande was delivered over to the
soldiers for indiscriminate massacre.

When Charles himself took Ouimper he suffered
his men to butcher fourteen hundred of the inhabit-
ants of both sexes and of every age, whilst he was

* Et ibi erant lol pediculi quot pietas erat videri. — Oh'v. de Bingnon.

38 HISTORY OF BRITTANY

himself mumbling his prayers. At last his chaplain,
disgusted at the slaughter, rushed to him into the
church, carrying in his arms a poor babe that he
had saved from being tossed on the pikes of the
soldiers, and insisted on Charles interrupting his
orisons to stay the carnage.

On the taking of a town, the only stipulation that
Charles made with his troops was that they should
respect the churches and the property of ecclesiastics.
To him the honour of virgins, the lives of brave men,
were naught.

Presently Jean de Montfort managed to escape
from prison, but the harsh treatment he had under-
gone had sapped his health, and he died at Hennebon

in 1345-

The expiring prince named Edward III. guardian
of his son, and the English king poured a large army
into Brittany, as well as elsewhere in France.

The battle of Cregy ensued, whilst the Earl of
Northampton was traversing Brittany and taking
one stronghold after another.

The Earl was succeeded by Thomas Dagworth.
La Roche Derrien had fallen into English hands.
Charles de Blois attempted to retake it, and was com-
pletely routed, and himself taken prisoner (June i8th,
1347) and sent to England, where he remained in
captivity for nearly twenty years.

The war went on between the two Jeannes, the
widow of De Montfort and the grass -widow of
Charles.

Brittany now became a prey to the "Com-
panies," bands of freebooters under redoubted cap-

ENGLAND AND FRANCE 39

tains who lived on the plunder of the land, and who
passed without scruple from one side to the other, as
best served their ends.

It was during this period that occurred the Battle
of the Thirty. The combat was proposed by Robert
de Beaumanoir, Governor of Josselin for Charles of
Blois, and the English Captain Bramber or Bram-
bourg. Commander of Ploermel for De Montfort and
King Edward.

It was agreed between them that thirty knights on
each side should meet at the oak of Mivoie between
the two places.

Bramber is said to have had only twenty English
available, and to have completed his number with
Flemings and Bretons, but judging by the names of
those on his side, there were only four Englishmen,
Robert Knollys, Thomelin Walton, Hugh Calverley,
and a Dagworth. The rest were Gascons, Flemings,
Bretons, and Norman-French.

The victory was with the French.

The war continued, and France was crushed under
the heel of England. The defeat of Poitiers was
more disastrous than that of Cregy, and it produced
the captivity of King John and his two sons.

Towards the end of 1356 Charles de Blois re-
covered his liberty. He was suffered to return to
France, but was obliged to leave his two sons as
hostages, and to undertake to pay a heavy ransom.

At the same time the young De Montfort arrived
on the scene with the Duke of Lancaster. The war
was being handed on as a legacy from one generation
to another.

40 HISTORY OF BRITTANY

But now arose a man who was to change the whole
aspect of affairs — Bertrand du GuescHn, a man of real
military genius, true patriotism, and of probity.
Born at Broons, in or near 1320, his abilities brought
him rapidly into notice.

But the battle of Auray was disastrous. It was
fought on Michaelmas Day, 1364; Du Guesclin was
taken prisoner, and Charles de Blois was killed, along
with his bastard son.*

The death of Charles, whose sons were hostages in
England, brought some alleviation to the miseries of
the duchy. Charles V. of France consented to ac-
knowledge Jean de Montfort as duke, and he is
known as John IV. of Brittany.

But peace was not of long duration. It lasted for
five years only. Jean was English by education and
sympathies, and when, in 1369, he opened his ports
to the English fleets, and suffered English troops to
march through his land to attack France, the Breton
barons rose in revolt, took from him nearly all his
fortresses, and compelled him to fly to England.

The death of the Black Prince and of Edward III.
gave Charles V. an occasion for annexing Brittany to
the French crown. This high-handed proceeding
roused the anger of the Breton nobility, and they re-

* Breton patriotism speedily elevated him to the number of the
blessed, but he has never been canonised, though initiatory proceed-
ings for his beatification were started. In 1368 Urban V. forbade the
bishops of Brittany allowing him to be worshipped as a saint and
martyr. Nevertheless, his name was inserted in 1 731 in the Breviary of
Blois, and he receives a cult to this day in Brittany, where he is rising
into fashion. Regardless of his word, lax in his morals, indifferent to
human suffering, he is a typical example of narrow hysterical piety.

ROOD SCREEN', LAJIBALLE

THE DUCHESS ANNE 41

called their duke, who now appeared as the champion
of their native liberties and independence (1379).
Du Guesclin, although a Breton by birth, did not
swerve from his allegiance to the crown of France,
and served under its lilies against the ermine of
Brittany.

We must now pass over a century that was not
without broils and bloodshed, in which the English
were continuously associated.

Duke Francis II. died in 1488, leaving an only
child, Anne, as his heiress. At once the unfortunate
province became a prey to rival candidates for her
hand — Maximilian of Austria; the Sieur d'Albret,
supported by the English ; the Duke of Orleans,
backed up by his brother Charles VIII.; and the
Viscount of Rohan.

The aspirants pursued their suit with the sword;
desolation and slaughter were everywhere ; and
finally, to put a term to this internecine strife, and
secure the duchy, Charles VIII. married Anne
himself

Charles was a repulsive object, with a big head and
short legs, and with an unwholesome complexion.
He was so badly educated that he could hardly read,
was deficient in intelligence, and a creature who acted
on caprice. Anne could only be induced to accept
him at the urgent entreaty of the bishops and nobles
of her duchy, and when she gave him her hand it
was with averted face (December 6th, 1491). Thence-
forth Brittany became a province of the realm of
France.

Charles died in 1498 without issue, and at once

42 HISTORY OF BRITTANY

Anne retreated to her duchy, where she was received
with enthusiasm.

Her widowhood was not of long duration. Some
flimsy excuse was found to enable the Pope to annul
the marriage of the new king, and then Louis XII.
married the widow (January 7th, 1499).

Thenceforth the history of Brittany is merged in
that of France, and it is not necessary for me to give
here in abstract what is generally known or easily
obtainable elsewhere.

"The political fusion had taken place, but comprised
no moral or administrative union. Centuries would
have to elapse before Brittany could be brought to
submit to French administration. It would protest
by the voice of its estates, and again and again the
people would rise whenever the attempt was made at
unification, and its franchises and its customs were
touched, above all, when a sacrilegious hand was laid
on the Cross before which the entire population had
bowed for fourteen hundred years. As to moral
fusion, that is not as yet complete, at least in Lower
Brittany, nor will it be until the railways have every-
where penetrated to the granite villages." *

* I'itre-Chevaliek, La Bictagne Andeune, Paris, 1859, p. 469.

THE DUKES OF BRITTANY 43

THE DUKES OF BRITTANY

CONAN I. (990-992)

I
Geoffry I. (995-1008)

I
Alan III. (1008-1040)

Conan II. (1040-1066) Havoise = Hoel Count of Cornouaille,

Duke of Brittany
^1 (1066- 1084)

Alan IV. (1084-1119)

I
Conan III. (1119-1148)

(2) Eudo (ii48-ii56) = Bertha = (i) Alan of Penthievre Hoel, dis-

Regent | avowed by his father

Conan IV. (1156-1166)

I
(2)Guy deThouars = Constance==(i) Geoftrey Plantagenet

I I (1181-I186)

Pierre de Dreux = Alix Arthur I. (1186-1203)
(1213-1237) 1

I
Jean I. (1237-1286)

, I

Jean II. (1286-1305)

(2) Jolande de Dreux = Arthur II. = Marie de Limoges
Countess of Montfort 1 (1305-1312) |

I 1 I

Jean IV. (de Montfort) = Jeanne de Jean III. Guy de Penthievre

{d. 1374) j "Flanders (1312-1341) I

Jean V. {d. 1399) Jeanne = Charles de

I __ Blois

I P I (1341-1364)

Jean VI. (1399- 1442) Arthur III. Richard = Marguerite

I (1437-1458) {d. 1438) I d'Orleans

~. I I

Fran9ois I. Pierre II. Francois II. = Marguerite de Foix

(1442-1451) (1451-1457) (1457-1488) I

(i) Charles VIII., King of France= Anne ^(2) Louis XII., King of France
{in. 1491 ; d. 1498) (d. 1514) | [in. 1499; d. 1515)

Fran9ois I., King of France = Claude Renee = Hercules d'Est,

CHAPTER IV
ARCHITECTURE

Advantage of a rudimentary knowledge of architectural styles — British
monastery at Lavre — Carlovingian church at S. Philibert — The
Norsemen — Romanesque architecture in the eleventh century —
S. Sauveur, Dinan — Attempts at vaulting — The pointed arch —
First Pointed style — Cost of glass — Notre Dame de Lamballe — Dol
Cathedral — The Second Pointed or Geometrical style — The choir of
Notre Dame de Lamballe — The compasses compress genius — The
Third Pointed or Flamboyant style — The Renaissance — Its towers —
Summary — Baroque style — The chateaux — Norman method of forti-
fication— Flamboyant and Renaissance chateaux — The death of
architectural beauty — Cottages.

ONLY second in interest to the people are the
churches of Brittany, the shrines of their
higher Hfe, the pole to which every heart turns in
every village.

It is in the church that the most beautiful thoughts,
the most lofty ideas of the population, have been
crystallised. The farm and the cottage have been
the scenes of hard toil, but the church is the home
of their spiritual nature.

To go through the province and not to be able to
discriminate between architectural styles, and to
estimate the approximate date of a building, or of
its several parts, is to miss one great source of in-
struction and enjoyment.

THE CHURCHES 45

I do not purpose in this chapter doing more than
give the reader a few elementary rules for his
guidance ; but I trust sufficient to put him in the
way of continuing his studies as he wanders through
the highways and byways of the land.

The early British settlers built their churches and
habitations of wood ; or if of stone, then it was only
of rude blocks put together without mortar. No such
remains of early architecture exist in Brittany as are
found in Ireland and the Western Isles of Scotland.
But the foundations of a monastery may be traced
in the Isle of Lavre, in the Brehat Archipelago.
They consist of a quadrangular oratory and a
cluster of beehive cells, in all particulars the same
as the Irish type of the fifth and sixth centuries.

The earliest remaining Christian church since the
Frank conquest, built of stone and mortar, is to be
found just without the confines of Brittany. It is
at S. Philibert de Grandlieu, and this belongs to the
Carlovingian period. It was employed as parish
church to the village, and was thickly cased in white-
wash, covering its characteristic features. A few
years ago the fancy took the parishioners to build a
new church in a different spot, and to convert the
old one into a market hall. In the process of adap-
tation to its new purpose the whitewash fell like a
curtain, and revealed the original masonry.

This church was constructed before 819, but
additions were made in 835. It consisted of a
basilica with nave and side aisles, a great apse at
the east end of the former, and lesser apses termi-
nating the aisles. When in 835 the church was

46 ARCHITECTURE

lengthened, it was done by destroying these apses,
constructing a large quadrangular space on their site,
and by adding apses further east.

The building of both dates is of precisely the
same character, a course of white limestone alter-
nating with three of red brick. Of carved work
there is none. The side aisles are separated from
the nave by huge piers united by small semicircular
arches, so small as to imply that the architects were
timid in their employment of them. This is almost
the sole example of a Carlovingian church that exists
in France.

The incursions of the Northmen became so
frequent and so vexatious in the latter part of the
ninth and in the tenth centuries, that the monas-
teries were abandoned, and the monks fled, carrying
with them the bones of their patrons, to walled
cities in the centre of France; and some of the
chiefs, together with large bodies of the people,
escaped to England. Hardly any building, secular
or ecclesiastical, was attempted in Brittany till the
beginning of the eleventh century.*

Now look at the sketch of an arcade in the church
of S. Martin at Lamballe. It is somewhat similar to
that of S. Philibert, excepting only the alternating
bands of brick and stone, which are absent in
Lamballe. Yet two centuries intervened between
the building of one and of the other.

When the Bretons began to re-erect their churches

* There are, however, a very early crypt at Lanmeur, and an early
church with lude carvings at Locquenole near Morlaix, both of the
tenth century.

ARCHITECTURE

in the eleventh century, they started from the point
where they had left off in the ninth.

But architecture now made rapid strides, and
sculpture came to its aid. The inspiration was
from Lombardy. It flourished with extraordinary

FIG. 3. ARCADE, S, MARTIN, LAMBALLE

luxuriance and with barbaric decoration in the centre
of France, where the west fronts were turned into
screens covered with rude but effective sculpture.
Typical examples are Ste. Radegonde and Notre
Dame at Poitiers.

But in Normandy the style was graver, more re-
strained, and statelier.

THE NORMANS 49

Mrs. Alfred Gatty, in one of her " Parables of
Nature," tells how that the domestic crickets when
first created felt themselves to be lost creatures with-
out a sphere in which to live; they roved over the face
of the earth and shivered. But when men began to
build houses, then they found the destination for which
they had been created. The Northmen had been
mere destroyers, wrecking all that was left of civilisa-
tion in Europe till they settled in Neustria. Then,
almost at once, they found their true vocation, and
developed rapidly into the master-builders of Europe.
The sense of artistic beauty and structural strength
planted in them had been in abeyance in their native
land, where they had only wood with which to deal.
But in Normandy, where the forests were sparse, and
Caen stone was accessible, they laid hold of the pick
and the trowel and created mediaeval architecture, the
most perfect in construction and in loveliness ever
achieved by mankind.

Starting with the plain round arch, they rapidly
improved on it ; they added mouldings ; they took
the plain abacus and transformed it by the addition
of sculpture.

The style they created is called by us, and rightly,
the Norman ; by the French Romane (Romanesque),
because it had its cradle in Italy.

The examples in Brittany are not numerous, but
the student may start on his rambles, with some
acquaintance with it, by attentively noting the
specimens that exist at Dinan.

The west front of S. Sauveur, below the window,
which is later, is Romanesque. So is the south

50 ARCHITECTURE

wall of the nave, where engaged pilasters take the
place of buttresses. So is the little chapel of S.
Joachim, beyond the S. Malo gate. Observe therein
the arch of the apse.

The ravages of war, fires caused by lightning or
accident, made the builders desirous to protect from
flames the altar and the relics under it. When the
roof was of wood, not only was it consumed, but the
falling masses of blazing timber destroyed what was
beneath, and the architects began to vault the apse
above the most sacred portion of the church. But
the pressure of the vault on the walls obliged them
to greatly thicken these latter. As yet the buttress
w^as not understood, and the utmost done to strengthen
the walls against the outward thrust was to engage
piers or pillars in the wall.

For a while only did they content themselves with
vaulting the apse. The next step was to treat the
side aisles in the same way. It was long before they
ventured on vaulting the nave, and it was when they
attempted this that the buttress, and finally the flying
buttress, came into use. This latter, however, not till
comparatively late.

To enable the reader to follow the development of
the buttress, I give a series of sketches, mainly from
De Caumont, that exemplify it.

Fig. 4. San Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna, belongs
to the later Empire. Here the outward thrust of the
roof is resisted by mere thickenings of the wall in
the form of an arcade.

Fig. 5. Here we have the buttress in a Romanesque
building. It is nothing further than a thickening of

FIG. 4. BUTTRESS, RAVEWA

FIG. 5

FIG. 7

52 ARCHITECTURE

the wall ; no advance has been made on the method
adopted at Ravenna.

Fig. 6. In this example the buttress is decorated
with pilasters, but still no progress has been made.

Fig. 7. Now an advance has been made. The true
buttress shows itself, by a carrying down of the
resistance.

Fig. 8. A further example of the true buttress.

Fig. 9, In the thirteenth century the buttress is in
full course of development.

Fig. 10. To sustain a vaulted roof, the flying
buttress takes its place. The example given is quite
simple, but splendid representations of this stone
scaffolding may be seen wherever there is an apse in
the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries.

Fig. II. The degradation of the buttress; from the
apse of the Cathedral of Vannes, eighteenth century,
where the true principle of the fl}'ing buttress is lost,
and it is made weak where it should be strong.

In some instances the buttress is included within
the church, the space between the several buttresses
being utilised as side chapels. At Lamballe (Notre
Dame) the substance of the buttress is elegantly
pierced with tracery. At Guingamp the flying
buttress daringly traverses the interior of the side
aisles.

We will now leave the buttress, and consider the
piers and arches within.

At first the arcade of the nave rested on oblong
pillars that were rectangular. Again I give a series
of examples ; this time I produce plans.

Fig. 12 represents the earliest plan of a pier.

FIG. lO

FIG. II

ARCHITECTURE

Fig. 13 shows an improvement, an enrichment.

Fig. 14, Here we have pilasters engaged in the
mass of the pier.

Fig. 15. The harsh angles of the central mass are
removed, and the whole pier enriched. Every such
enrichment of the pillars led to the enrichment at the
same time of the arches that reposed upon them.

FIG. 12 FIG. 13

FIG. 14

SECTIONS OF PIERS

FIG. 15

But even when round drums were employed in the
place of rectangular piers, or their modifications, the
arches were richly moulded.

At first the arches were semicircular, struck, that is,
from a single centre (Fig. 16).

The second stage was the making of pointed
arches. Whether the architects were forced to adopt
the pointed arch by the stress of circumstances, when

ARCHES

constructing their vaults, or whether they hit on it by
the interlacing of semicircular arches (Fig. 17), has

Ku;. 16

been disputed, and we need not stay here to inquire.
Sufficient for us that the next stage was the general
adoption of the pointed arch ; and with its adoption

3Liis:o

FIG. 17

we arrive at what is termed the First Pointed style
(Fig. 18).

Arches were, indeed, still not infrequently round,
but usually they were pointed, and when round we
learn, as in the magnificent north doorway at Lam-

ARCHITECTURE

balle, to determine their period by the mouldings and
fohage employed.

The First Pointed style began in the twelfth cen-
tury and lasted to the beginning of the thirteenth.

FIG. l8

We will now consider the windows.

In Romanesque churches there were only small
round-headed windows, or else bull's-eyes.

With the twelfth century lancets (Fig. 19) were in-
troduced, and these were sometimes grouped.

At the time glass was scarce and costly, and the
windows were filled with wooden frames over which
was strained oiled linen. Our English word wifidow
comes from the Scandinavian, and signifies a wind-
eye, a hole through which the air poured in. Now,
indeed, it was excluded, but glass came into use in
the wealthiest churches. Its employment rapidly
spread, and the art of staining it was acquired.

The architects were now able to widen their lancets,
and make attempts at tracery. But this tracery was
only tried in two-light windows, by including both
lancets under a containing arch, and by piercing the
space above them, and forming therein a circular
window (Fig. 20).

FIRST POINTED 57

I do not think that we can do better than take an
object lesson at Lamballe. The chapel of the castle
of the Counts of Penthievre occupies a height above
the town, and presents examples that are typical of
all the styles of Pointed architecture.

The original church consisted of a quasi-cruciform
structure, with a north entrance from the castle.
Within, the nave has great drums of pillars with
early First Pointed foliage of good character on the
capitals, and with pointed arches, i.e. arches struck
from two centres.

Now if we look at S. Martin's Church in Lamballe,
we see a rude Romanesque nave, with semicircular
arches, but east of these we have very early pointed
arches of the second period, simpler than those at
Notre Dame.

The architects of this period did not confine them-
selves to drums of pillars ; they proceeded to surround
them with clusters of slender shafts — in England
frequently of Purbeck marble.

The church of Notre Dame de Lamballe was
consecrated in 1220. By this date architecture was
in rapid development, and the nave actually represents
a stage that had already been left behind.

Now turn to Dol Cathedral. This had been burnt
to the ground by King John in 1203. The rebuilding
was commenced about 1220, and was continued to
1260. It is still in First Pointed, but in this style much
developed since the nave of Lamballe was built.
Here we have larger windows, because glass was
now easily procurable, and clustered and disengaged
columns surrounding the drums. Moreover, we have

58 ARCHITECTURE

here, what we have not at Lamballe, a pointed vaulted
roof.

Now let us proceed further.

The architect, having discovered the pleasing effect
of combining two lancets and piercing a circle above
them, proceeded to group together three or more
lights, reduce the intermediate spaces of stone to
mere mullions, and to multiply the circles above.

At the west end of Lamballe (Notre Dame) may
be seen a First Pointed window of the type Fig. 21.
But in the south transept of S. Martin's Church is a
typical Geometrical window of tracery of the newer
style, which is called the Second Pointed or Geo-
metric style (Fig. 24).

There is, moreover, a two-light window in Notre
Dame that exhibits the pleasure taken by the archi-
tect in his newly acquired power of the employment
of tracery in windows (Fig. 23).

The whole of the choir of this church was built
under Charles de Blois, between 1353 and 1364, and
is a magnificent example of this Second Pointed style.
The lichness of the clustering of the engaged columns
that sustain the central tower, especially those to the
east that had to resist the thrust of the vaulting, is
not to be surpassed. There is a double triforium
above the arcade and below the clerestory windows,
and the choir is vaulted. On both sides the buttresses
are taken into the church to form side chapels, but
on the south side they are perforated and filled in
with Geometrical tracer}'.

Treguier Cathedral is in the same Second Pointed
style, and some of its aisle windows are superb
examples of the tracery of this period.

FIG. 19

6o ARCHITECTURE

This Second Pointed or Geometric style depends
for its execution on a pair of compasses. Cologne,
Amiens, York Minster, Lincoln, and Exeter belong
to it.

Beautiful — the very flower of Gothic architecture —
as it may be, yet it was a style that lent itself to be
employed by second- and third-rate architects with
respectable results.

The compass nipped genius. Any dull man who
had a pair of dividers, Caen stone, and unlimited
means at his disposal, could design an Amiens or
a York Minster which would be perfectly correct,
and show no spark of invention.

There is a fairy tale of the faithful servant, who
when he lost his master bound an iron hoop about
his heart. When he recovered his master, for joy his
bosom swelled and snapped the iron ring. Some-
thing of the sort took place with the mediaeval
designer in stone. Genius strained within him till
it broke through the circle, and it fell. In England,
France, and Germany, almost if not quite simul-
taneously Geometrical tracery was cast aside. But
the result was different in each land. In England
the architect subordinated his art to that of the glass
painter. He made of his churches vast lanterns, and
turned the windows into frames for stained pictures
of saints and angels. He originated the "Perpendicu-
lar " style, for his lines became vertical.

In Germany he allowed the circles to pierce one
another, snapped them, and let the broken ends
remain exposed. In France the tracery became leaf-
or flame-shaped, waving, recurving, everything but

FIG. 23

FIG. 24

FIG. 26
RENAISSANCE WINDOW

FIG. 25
FLAMBOYANT WINDOW

62 ARCHITECTURE

circular or rigid. Moreover, the architect in England
and in France now conceived a fancy for striking his
arches from four centres, two being often on the out-
side of his arch. In France the two -centred arch
was still employed for the window-heads, yet door-
ways and arcading were frequently four-centred.

The designer was now emancipated from all
restraint, and the Third Pointed or Flamboyant style
shows the utmost luxuriance, even wantonness, in
tracery and decoration. Flamboyant windows are
often surpassingly rich and beautiful,* but are also
sometimes weak and weedy.

At Notre Dame de Lamballe the Third Pointed
architect knocked away the First Pointed nave aisles,
and put in gables to contain tall P'lamboyant windows.
The choir of S. Sauveur at Dinan, and the window
above the west door, as also the north aisle of the
nave, are of the Third Pointed period. So also is the
church of S. Malo in the same town.

But the exuberance and extravagance of Flam-
boyant work produced a reaction. A desire was felt
for something less frittering of outline and bolder in
treatment of the windows.

At the same time came into France an influx of
Italian artists, who made Italian presentation of
classic pagan models the fashion of the day. But
the Renaissance at first affected details only. Gothic
forms in the larger features and outlines remained,
and even the foliage continued to be that of the
Flamboyant period.

In its early stage Renaissance buildings are very

* The west window of York Minster shows Flamboyant feeling.

RENAISSANCE 6

beautiful, and some of the towers of this epoch are
pecuHarly fine, but the style rapidly deteriorated.
Perhaps one of the most striking examples of a
Renaissance church with all its adjuncts— triumphal
arch into the churchyard, Calvary crowded with
statues, and ossuary — is that of S. Thegonnec, in
Finistere. The cumbrous triumphal arch is dated
1587, the beautiful ossuary is dated 1677, the Calvary
16 10, and the church was built between 1563 and
1632. The ossuary is really the purest and earliest
in style. The whole group is astonishing in the
wealth of architecture crowded into a small space.
The buttresses no more shoot up into pinnacles, but
are surmounted by cupolas ; pillars and pilasters are
of classic character, and the arch meets in a heavy,
enriched keystone. The niches for saints are sur-
mounted by canopies that are wholly classic in detail
though still Gothic in feeling.

The tendency in the towers is now to form pseudo-
buttresses by reducing the walls between the angles,
and boldly, heavily, even clumsil}- bracketing out the
platform that supports the spire or cupola.

At Guingamp the south-west tower, never finished,
is of this period, so is a large portion of the south
front. Below are late flame-traceried windows, but
above these in an upper stage others square-headed
in pseudo-classic style.

A prejudice against tracery now manifested itself,
and whensoever any had to be employed it was
barbarous and uncouth to the last degree. In the
church of Lannion we have almost side by side a
Second Pointed window with circles in tracer}',

64 ARCHITECTURE

a Flamboyant window of exaggerated character, and
a Renaissance window in which the faculty of the
artist to design tracer)^ seems to have suffered
paralysis (Fig. 26).

But although the architects of this later period
were incapable in one direction, they were masters
in another. In no part of Europe does architecture
of this epoch present so instructive a study. Their
spires and porches are of extraordinary richness
and beauty. The type of spire changes greatly
at this period. The Romanesque tower was usually
central and square and massive. Then came in
the use of bell towers at the west end, all on a
square base ; but the Renaissance architects affected
an oblong quadrangular plan.

There would seem to have been a great school of
architecture about the end of the sixteenth and
beginning of the seventeenth centuries at Lander-
neau, that created the incomparable works of S.
Houardon in that town and of several others in
the neighbourhood.

The Flamboyant spires were a development of
those of the preceding period, but the lantern-crowned
towers of the Renaissance are designed in complete
independence.

The earlier type of tower and spire consisted of
one stage superposed on another, each crowned by
a gallery on all sides. This was forced upon the
Breton architects by circumstances. When, for
century after century, the country was ravaged by
the English and French, then the tower served as
a look-out place, whence watch was kept by night

PORCH AND (ISSLARV, GL'I.MILIAU. 1606

PORCHES

and by day against wandering Companies or hostile
armies. The tower either terminates with a square
head and a platform or in a series of galleries in stages.
Next to the towers we may note the porches as
very original features, especially in the Renaissance

FIGS. 27, 28. TWO-CENTRED ARCHES

FIGS. 29, 30. FOUR-CENTRED ARCHES

period. The noblest of all are Landivisiau, 1554,
and that at Landerneau, the date of which is 1604,
and it is much like that of Bodilis, which is dated
1570; and those of Pleyben, 1588; Goulven, 1593;
S. Thegonnec, 1599; Guimiliau, 1606; Tremaouezan,
1610-23 ; Goueznou, 1643, ^^d some others even later.

66 ARCHITECTURE

The architects possessed the admirable Kersanton
stone in which to work. This is dark and fine-
grained ; it cuts easily when taken from the quarries,
but hardens with time.

The foliage of the several periods need not detain
us long. Romanesque leaf-work is stiff and archaic.

That of First Pointed is leafage bursting with the
breath of spring.

That of Second Pointed is foliage and flower in full
summer.

That of Third Pointed is leafage crinkled and
crisped with the touch of winter.

The periods may be roughly distinguished thus : —

Romanesque (round arches), eleventh century and
beginning of twelfth.

First Pointed (two -centred arches and lancets),
middle twelfth century and beginning of thir-
teenth.

Second Pointed (two -centred arches and Geo-
metric tracery), middle thirteenth centur}' and
throughout fourteenth.

Third Pointed (four -centred, flame tracery), all
fifteenth century and beginning of sixteenth.

Renaissance (round, poor tracery), end sixteenth
century to middle of seventeenth.

Baroque (round, no tracery), middle seventeenth
century to end of eighteenth.

To turn now to the chateaux.

The earliest fortress of stone known to exist in
Brittany, and which probably belongs to the ninth
century, is Castel-Cran in Plelauff, Cotes-du-Xord.

CHATEAUX 67

Its plan is extremely simple; at the summit of a
promontory on a natural platform is a castle, the
shape of which is determined by the form of the
headland it occupies. It is an irregular pentagon
with a donjon in the south-west angle. The walls,
about five feet thick, are very rudely constructed ;
the blocks of stone are uncut, and are bedded in clay
instead of mortar. They now stand only six feet
high.*

But the Normans were the master - builders of
castles as they were of churches. The type adopted
by them became permanent for three centuries. It
consists in drums of towers connected by curtain
walls, and the towers in later days were usually
capped with conical slate roofs.

Brittany does not possess many large castles, none
comparable to those in Touraine, but it has Josselin
and Clisson. There are, however, a good many of
the same type on a smaller scale, as Combourg, Vitre,
Sucinio, Tonquedec, and Elven.

But when the period of incessant or intermittent
warfare was at an end, when Brittany became a
province of France, there sprang up as by magic
a crop of chateaux in the Flamboyant style, all
beautiful, with their gables crocketed, with dormer
windows, and with tall roofs.

When the Renaissance came, the chateaux con-
tinued to be beautiful, till that style became degraded
to that type which seems everywhere in Europe to
have been appropriated as suitable to pretentious

* See M. Keranflech's account of it in the CongrJs de Saint-Servan
for 1891.

68 ARCHITECTURE

hotels. The details become coarse and the cornices
and mouldings cumbrous. Every element of beauty
is gone and every element of vulgarity is accentuated.

A Breton farmhouse or cottage deserves a word.
It has struck me as structurally much resembling
one such of the old type in Wales. A door between
two windows, and of one story, and a chimney at
one end. The interior has an earth floor, a huge
fireplace for wood ; the beds are arranged about the
sides, and are closed in with carved wood fronts with
little rails for the admission of light and air. The
principal lit-clos has a small square exterior window
opening into it. At night the members of the house-
hold retire into their closed beds, draw the doors
together, and undress in privacy. So also do they
dress in the morning in their box-beds, and open
the doors and issue forth clothed. How, when, and
where the washing is performed we need not inquire.

The great room is further furnished with large oak
carved wardrobes and chests, and each lit-clos has a
box like a small settee by it, on which to step so as
to enter or leave bed.

Note. — An inaccuracy occurs in Figs. 23-26. I sent photo-
graphs and drawings to an architect to be drawn out in full for
me. He was accustomed to Bath and Caen stone, and has
accordingly composed the jambs and mullions of small blocks
superposed ; whereas, being in granite, they should be drawn
in single blocks.

I'ARUO.X OF S. ANNE, |-C1UES\A\T

CHAPTER V

THE PARDONS

What a pardon is — Displacement of local saints — The nature of a
pardon — S. Jean du Doigt — Cult of relics — Pardon of Motreff — Of
Guingamp — Sticking pins in images — S. Servais — Locronan —
Irvillac — Plougastel — Fouesnant — The pain benit — Its origin —
— Attempt of the Government to suppress or discourage religious
observances — List of pardons.

IT is with some hesitation that I write upon the
topic of the Breton pardons, for in them we see
the intensely rehgious feehng of the people manifest-
ing itself in its utmost intensity ; and to assist at a
pardon with covered head and clicking a kodak is to
commit an impertinence and a sacrilege.

The pardon is to the Breton what a revival is to
a Cornish Methodist and a camp-meeting to a York-
shire Nonconformist. Religion, wherever found, and
in whatever form it shows itself, is too sacred to be
treated with contempt, or peered into inquisitively.

But the pardon is an institution too unique and
too intimately bound up with Breton life to be passed
over without notice. I trust that such as thrust
themselves on one may leave their superciliousness
behind them.

The pardon is the feast of the patron saint of a
church or a chapel. It by no means is ahva}'s

70 THE PARDONS

observed in the parish church ; it is frequently cele-
brated in and about a lone oratory that is rarely
visited at other times, and is unmarked in ordinary
maps. The scene may be some woodland glen, or
some barren moor, or an islet in the wild sea.

It is the wake, revel, or feast with all its mediaeval
features unaltered, hardly modified, and with the
religious element intensified.

A little Breton almanack, annually published at
Ouimperle, gives the days of the pardons throughout
the year in Finistere and Morbihan.*

The pardons begin in March and end in October,
but the majority are between Easter and Michaelmas.
When the feast day of the patron falls in winter the
saint is only commemorated on that day, and the
great celebration is transferred to a more congenial
season. So also, when the patronal feasts of two
parishes or chapels near each other occur close to-
gether, one has to be transferred. A good deal of effort
has been made by the bishops and clergy of ultra-
montane tendency to efface the native and Celtic
saints, and supplant them by such as are in the
Roman calendar. For instance, at S. Aaron, near
Lamballe, about twelve years ago, the very interesting
early church, in which was much fine old glass, was
ruthlessly swept away, and a vulgar Cockney-Gothic
edifice run up and reconsecrated under the patronage
of S. Sebastian and S. Aaron, and the village feast
was transferred from the day of the founder, which
is June 22nd (as he was a Welsh saint, and had not
received the imprimatur of Rome), to the 20th

* Aniitiaire du Finistere, V Union Agriiolii%l Maritime. Quimperle.

CALENDARS 71

January, although that is in midwinter, merely for
the sake of getting the people to pay their vows to
the Roman saint in place of him who had been the
apostle of the district and the founder of their church.

In the calendars of the Breton dioceses the process
of elimination goes on. In that of the united dioceses
of Treguier and S. Brieuc for the present year (1901)
not one Celtic saint is noticed in the months of
January, February, June, July, August, September,
and December. In March only one — Paul of Leon
— is accepted : from April S. Brieuc could not with
decency be excluded. The local saints in most favour
are late, S. William and S. Ives. Charles of Bourbon,
though not canonised, is rising rapidly in popular
favour. On the other hand, the calendar is invaded
by foreigners. Of Italians there are fourteen in
January and February ; whereas of early Breton
saints there are but five admitted in the entire year.

In that striking story of Ferdinand Fabre, UAbbe
Tigratte, the Bishop of Formieres is represented in
his Grand Seminar}-- turning out the professors as
not sufficiently ultramontane to please him, and
when the teachers murmur, he asks with what do
they reproach him. " With what 7 " asks the Pro-
fessor of Ecclesiastical History. " In your passion
for reform you have not suffered us to commemorate
our own local saints ; you have abolished the Proper
of the Diocese, one of the most ancient and most
glorious of the martyrologies of France."

The Breton dioceses only abandoned their special
rites and the Gallican Breviary in 1848, and accepted
those of Rome.

72 THE PARDONS

To a pardon come pilgrims from all sides in their
best costumes, which are only to be seen there and at
a wedding. They proceed to their destination with
the utmost gravity, their lips murmuring prayers
and their eyes lowered. Beggars swarm, sordid,
covered with vermin, exposing their sores, and fill
the air with their whine. In the churchyard the
young couples walk together solemnly, exchange a
few words across a grave, and make their arrange-
ments for life.

Le Goffic says : " These pardons are the same now
that they were two hundred years ago, and nothing
can be conceived more delightfully antiquated. They
do not resemble other fetes. They are not excuses
for drunken debauches, like the Flemish kermess, nor
the rendezvous of showmen like the Paris fairs. The
attraction is something other and higher. These
pardons are feasts of the soul. There is little laughing
and much praying." *

As a visitor remarked to a native, " Decidedly,
I like your Bretons better when not amusing them-
selves. They are then less grave." The greater
part of the day is spent in devotions ; it begins with
the early Mass ; but the observance has actually
commenced earlier, for the eve is devoted to con-
fession, and the rosary is recited the whole way to
the place of pardon. Some of the pilgrims have
come barefooted, and such as intend to communicate
are fasting. Indeed, there are not a few who return
to their homes without having broken their fast.
Mothers are there with infirm children in their arms.

* Lcs Romanciers d'aiijoiird^hiii, p. 87.

S. JEAN DU DOIGT ^

They dip the shirts of their babes in the holy well,
and then put them on all dripping. Cripples plunge
their distorted limbs in the blessed water, others pour
it over their rheumatic joints or their open sores, and
many are there scooping up the holy water to drink
it as a cure to their internal maladies. There are
processions of children in white, and flowers are
strewn. Incense is wafted, candles flicker, and
banners wave. Sermons are preached and hymns
are sung. The priests who attend are saying mass
at the altar from before daybreak.

A pardon that attracts crowds is celebrated at
S. Jean du Doigt, near Morlaix, on the 23rd and
24th June. The story connected with it is as
follows : —

By order of Julian the Apostate the body of the
Baptist was burnt at Samaria, but a miraculous rain
extinguished the fire, and some relics were saved.
Among these was the forefinger of the right hand
with which John had indicated Christ. This finger
was sent to Philip, Patriarch of Jerusalem. Thula,
a Normandy damsel, managed to get possession of it,
and transported it to her native land, and built a
church to contain it. Now it chanced, in 1437, that
a young Breton of Plougasnou saw this relic, and
resolved on stealing it. He found means of carrying
out his intention, and to conceal the relic cut open
his arm, and secreted the finger under his skin.

On reaching his native village he revealed what he
had secured, and great was the joy of the people at
having obtained so precious a relic. Duke John V.
of Brittany in 1440 laid the foundation of the church

74 THE PARDONS

that was to receive it, and the beautiful Flamboyant
structure was completed in 15 13 by the liberality of
the Duchess Anne.

The holy well is near the church. When the water
is stirred with this relic it acquires miraculous powers ;
it heals all manner of diseases, and the chapel is
crowded with ex-voto tablets and thank-offerings for
supposed cures. The finger is exposed to the adora-
tion of pilgrims at the pardon ; the peasants believe
that it still exudes blood, and that the nail is annually
pared by the priests.

Formerly an angel was contrived to flutter down
from the church spire and ignite the bonfire, but this
has been discontinued. An angel, however, still
executes this office at the pardon of S. Nicodeme.

At Pouance is la tombe de I'emigre. No one
knows who the dead person is who is there buried,
but the people insist on worshipping there, and sur-
rounding it with ex-votos. At Chateaubriant is a
skull, none can say of whom, which receives a religious
cult. A withered corpse was dug up a few years ago
at Ere, near Lifre, and vows are made to it, and it
has become an object of devotion.

At Josselin, in the church of Notre Dame, on the
right-hand side on entering, a Gothic niche contains
a skull of some unknown personage, over which the
faithful empty little bags of corn to preserve them-
selves from headaches. One can hardly doubt that
this cult of old bones is a relic of primeval paganism,
and represents the taking from the dolmens of bones
and skulls to be scraped and fondled at certain
festivals. The clergy have substituted relics of saints,

MOTREFF 75

where possible, for those of ancestors. One of the
most interesting of pardons is that of Locronan.
The church there is crowded with very old and
grotesque statues of native saints. Certain guilds
or families have the charge of the several figures, and
on the occasion of the pardon these are brought out
by their hereditary custodians, who build for them
little leafy bowers along the course of the Tromenic,
or pilgrim path, at intervals, and the pilgrims as they
go by salute them ; some drop sous as offerings, some
kiss their feet, others may be seen throwing their
arms round them and hugging them.

The pardon of Motreff has been described by
Le Braz.* The patron is S. Peter, and on the eve
of the feast all the parishioners ascend to a bold
mountain -top, where a great bonfire is built up by
the head of a family in which the right is hereditary.
The fire has to be lighted only by a pure virgin, and
the sick and feeble are carried to the spot, as the
bonfire flames are held to be gifted with miraculous
healing powers. The parish priest is not suffered to
bless the fire ; that must be done by the most ancient
man of the village, who recites over it " The prayer
of the fire."

When the flames are abated, and the ashes glow,
then stones are placed around them for the souls of
the dead to sit there through the remainder of the
night and enjoy the heat. Every member of the
community carries away a handful of ashes as a
sovereign cure for sundry maladies. The whole
proceeding is instinct with paganism.

* Pdqiies d^hlaiide. Paris, 1S97.

^(> THE PARDONS

The pardons at which cattle are offered shall be
described later on.

The pardons do not extend further east than
Guingamp. There the great pardon is on the first
Sunday in July. At nightfall dances take place in
the street and place to the sound of the biniou. But
at nine o'clock a procession leaves the church bearing
the miraculous image of the Virgin, and it is carried
to the square, where immense bonfires are lighted,
and is taken round them. Immediately after mid-
night a mass is said, after which the pilgrims separate.
To Guingamp many come from Upper Brittany.

There are still other peculiarities noticeable at Guin-
gamp. In a side chapel is an image of S. Catherine.
Unmarried girls resort to this statue and stick pins
into it. If the saint shakes herself free from the
pins during the night, that is a token that she has
heard the prayers offered, and will obtain husbands
for the girls who pricked her. The same superstition
attaches to a statue of S. Guerec at Ploumanach.

One of the most remarkable pardons is now a
thing of the past.

The pardon referred to was that of S. Servais in
a fold of the mountains of Arre, on the fringe of
the forest of Duault. It was formerly attended by
from sixteen to seventeen thousand pilgrims from
the dioceses of Treguier, Ouimper, and Vannes.
Servais, who has become in Breton Gelvest, is in-
voked on behalf of the young corn. He guarantees
against early frosts.

The pardon is on May 13th. On the eve, men
and women were wont to arrive in troops, the men

S. SERVAIS ^^

all on horseback and armed with stout cudgels, with
a leather looped thong at the small end, through
which the hand was passed.

The following account of what the pardon con-
sisted in is from the pen of an old countess who
made the pilgrimage barefooted from Quimper on
seven occasions.

"We started in numerous bands. As we approached
the chapel we encountered the Gwenediz (the people
of Vannes). These were our most implacable foes.

" Vespers was awaited by all ranged in two camps,
the Gwenediz on one side of the stream that courses
by the cemetery wall, and we on the other. Glances
of acute hostility passed between the rival bodies.
When the vesper-bell rang the chapel doors were
thrown open, and we all rushed within.

"At the further end of the nave was a large banner,
upright, the staff passed through a ring of the altar-
rail. Hard by on a handbarrow was a little wooden
saint, S. Gelvest ar Piliau. There had to be a new
statue every year ; one would not serve twice after
the rough usage to which it was subjected.

" The Magnificat was chanted.

" Then all the cudgels were raised, and no sooner
was the last verse sung than the whole church
resounded with a frightful clashing of cudgels. The
Cornouaillais yelled, 'Drive away the frost! Give us
wheat in Cornouaille.' Whilst those of Vannes
shouted, ' Drive away the frost ! Wheat and oats
and buckwheat to the Vannetais ! '

"A stout fellow laid hold of the banner, the pole of
which is eighteen feet high, and two others raised

78 THE PARDONS

the bier to which the image was attached. The
rector of Duault advanced, pale as ashes, between
the serried ranks of the Gwenediz on the left and
the Cornouaillais on the right. The terrible moment
had arrived. The banner was inclined to pass under
the arch of the doorway.

" Suddenly a furious clamour burst forth, howls
from thousands of mouths, ' Hijar reiu ! hijar reiu !
Down with the frost ! ' and at once the conflict with
the cudgels began. They were flourished, whirled
like the sails of windmills, they descended, clashed,
and the rector with the choristers fled to the sacristy.
The battle was fought to obtain possession of the
banner and the wooden statuette, for the side that
secured them secured also immunity from late frosts
and an abundant harvest.

" The women were wont to fight as furiously as did
the men, employing their nails and teeth.

" I remember especially one occasion on which the
Cornouaillais were victorious. There had been a
hurricane of blows, arms had been broken, and heads
cut open. On the tombs without were men seated
with blood streaming from their mouths. The saint
had been smashed to atoms, and the women had
collected the chips in their aprons. The banner alone
was intact. The Vannetais made a last attempt
to secure it. They were, however, successfully
repulsed, and retired carrying off their wounded,
who groaned in their pain as jolted in carts from
the field of action. Our side carried off the banner
in triumph to the church. That year, I well re-
member, the harvest was unusually abundant."

LOCRONAN 79

This pardon — at least in its violent scenes — is a
thing of the past. Both the ecclesiastical and
secular authorities interfered to abolish a scandalous
usage that smacked too strongly of paganism. The
gendarmes appeared on the scene, and the bloody
pardon of Gelvest ar Piliau is at an end ; but the old
folks say that with its abolishment the fertility of the
land has decreased. It could only be maintained by
the annual shedding of blood.

One of the most noted pardons of Brittany is that
of Locronan. The Grand Pardon occurs every sixth
year, and the next will be in 1905. On this occasion
the whole circuit of the miniJii of S. Ronan is
gone round by the pilgrims barefooted and reciting
prayers. The distance is fourteen kilometres, but
the Petit Pardon occurs every year, when a much
more contracted circuit is made. The greater pardon
is called the Grand Tromenie (round of the miniJii)^
and takes place on the second Sunday of July
and concludes on the following Sunday. The Petit
Tromenie is on the last Sunday in September.

At Irvillac, in Finistere, is a curious pardon some-
thing like that described, in which fighting and
broken heads form a part of the order of procedure.
It is likewise in all probability a survival of a pagan
feast. It is celebrated on the third Sunday in
October.

At Plougastel, at the pardon on Midsummer Day,
great fires are lighted, and the children are passed
through or over them. Then the people kneel round
the bonfire, and taking up the ashes, rub their eyes
with them, after which they recite the Lord's Prayer

8o THE PARDONS

and the " Hail Mary." A curious example of an
institution that was pagan, with a patch of Chris-
tianity applied to it.

At S. Eloi, near Landerneau, is a chapel that
contains an image of the saint who is regarded
through Finistere as the patron of horses. At the
pardon, which is also celebrated with bonfires, the
farmers arrive in procession on horseback, and as
they pass before the image oblige their horses to
execute a sort of stumble or bow, as offering saluta-
tion to S. Eloi. After that each offers at the altar
a knot of horsehair.

There are peculiar features connected with many
of the pardons that can only be ascertained by
visiting them all, and this is not possible, as so many
occur on the same days in the summer.

A very pretty pardon is that of Fouesnant, to
which parties come in boats, bearing their banners,
the girls all in white. But its beauty depends much
on the arrival of the boats taking place at the flow
of the tide. Much is lost when the boats cannot
come into the bay.

A good many other peculiarities are found in the
religious life of the Bretons, beside the pardons, that
merit attention, and some of these shall be noticed
later on in this book.

The pain benit is very generally distributed at
High Mass. This usage is still in force in the
churches of Paris and in Normandy, but to the best
of my knowledge not in other parts of the Western
Church, though universal in the Eastern Church.

I have known English people startled at being

THE PAIN BENIT 8i

offered the bread during Mass, thinking that they
were being communicated. This, however, is not the
case, and a few words of explanation may not be out
of place. In ancient days the congregation made
oblation of the bread and wine required for the
Eucharist, just as with us in England it has to be
provided by the churchwardens. When received, the
priest blessed the gifts, then took from the bread
sufficient for the sacrifice, and gave what was over
to be distributed among the congregation. This dis-
tribution in the Greek and Russian Churches is made
at the end of the service, but in the north of France
it takes place just after the offertory.

In the tenth century the Western Church, holding
that at the institution unleavened bread was used,
considered that it would be acting more in accord-
ance with Scripture if it adopted the wafer. But the
oblation of the leavened bread continued to be made
by the people, and has also continued to be blessed
and then distributed. The reason for it has, how-
ever, ceased with the adoption of the unleavened
bread.

It is now cut up after benediction, and taken
round in baskets. Formerly it was a token of
fraternal love and regard for a bishop to send the
pain baiit to one of his brethren, or to one of the
faithful. In Paris S. Genevieve incurred much oppo-
sition, as she had instituted an ascetic mode of life,
and the hostility towards her was only allayed when
S. Germanus of Auxerre sent her the blessed bread.

I subjoin a list of some of the most notable pardons,
but it must not be regarded as more than a selection;

82 THE PARDONS

and I take mainly those in Finistere, where they
possess the most archaic and interesting character.

Steadily but surely, as French influence advances,
peculiar customs are being abandoned. The Re-
publican Government is employing all the means
at its disposal to crush out or to undermine the
religion of the people, and to secularise the educa-
tion. Morbihan and the C6tes-du-Nord have been
Gallicised, as have been Ille-et-Vilaine and Loire-
Inferieure for some time, and though religion is still
deep-seated and a dominant force, yet it is not an
overpowering and all-embracing passion as it is in
Finistere. It cannot be said that the Gallicising
process and the driving back of religion advance
honesty, sobriety, or morality generally.

It would not perhaps be incorrect, in drawing a
comparison between the popular religion of the
English peasantry and that of the Bretons, to call
the former natural religion with a tincture of Chris-
tianity, and the latter Christianity with a smack of
paganism.

Attempts have been made and are being made by
Welsh Calvinist preachers to break down the religious
convictions of the Bretons, but hitherto with little
success.

The following is a by no means complete list of par-
dons. Those that are most interesting are in darker
type ; but it is not possible to indicate all that are
especially curious without having attended every one.
They differ somewhat the one from the other, and
usually those most deserving of observation are such
as are in remote districts and lonely chapels.

THE PARDONS

Monday in Easter Week

Tuesday ,, „

I St Sunday after Easter

2nd

4th „

5th

Sunday after May nth

Ascension Day .

Sun. after Ascension Day
Whit Sunday

,, Monday

„ Thursday .
Trinity Sunday .

ist Sunday after Trinity

2nd „

ist Sunday in June

Plougastel-Daoulas at Les Fon-
taines blanches. Moncontour
(C. du N.), some rehgion and
much revelry and not a little
drunkenness.

Landevarzec.

Tremeoc. Quemeneven (N. D.
de Kergoat).

Saint Yvi. Plonevez Porzay (N. D.
de la Clarte).

Audierne, Edern (S. Symphorien).

Le Cloitre.

Beuzec-Cap-Sizun.

Loc Tudy.

Bodilis, Penhars, Spezet (at the
Well of S, Gouzenou), Lan-
devennec, Plougonnec.

Tregoat, S. Divy.

Kernilis. Plouider ; Edern ;
Coray; Spezet (Chapel of
Cran).

Quimperl^ (Pardon des Oiseaux) ;
Pont TAtb^ (Pardon des
Enfants) ; Ergue-Armel, La
Foret, Landudal, Ploneis,
Landeleau, Carantec.

Gouezec (Les Fontaines).

Rumengol ; Pleyben ; Benodet ;
Plozevit ; Ste. Anne d'Auray.

Coadry near Scaer; Ploermel
(M.); Benedictionof the Seaat
Camaret; Treguennec ; Ploue-
dern ; Plouzane.

Dirinon; Tr6babu, Roscoflf (P.
de Santec).

Kerlouan ; Ploujean.

THE PARDONS

June 7th .

Sunday after 17th June
Last Sunday in June .
June 24th and Sun. after

I St Sunday in July

2nd

>) J)

3rd „

4th „

Last „

))

July 26th

ist Sunday

in August

2nd

S. Herbot near Huelgoet.

Lanhouarneau.

Ste. Barbe in Le Faouet (M.).

S. Jean du Doigt ; Mespaul ;

Larmor in Ploemeur (with horse
races). Plo-ugastel-Daoulas (S.
after June 24th).

Meilars ; Goulien ; Ploneour
(N. D. de Bonnenouvelles) ;
Ploudalmezeau ; Landrilec ;
Tregarvan ; Penmarc'h ; Plou-
gastel S. Germain ; Guingamp
(night procession on Saturday
evening).

La Mart3rr ; Locronan ; Ros-
porden (N. D. des Fleurs) ;
Guilers ; Longuidec (M.) ;
Landerneau ; Treglonon.

Irvillac; Plogoff (N. D. de bon
Voyage) ; CoUorec.

Guerlesquin (last three days) ;
La Boche.

Sizun; Dirinon (Chapel of S.
Divy) ; Plomodiern (Chapel of
S.Sebastian); Plonevez Porzay
(la Palue) ; ChS.teauneuf.

Ste. Anne, Ste. Anne d'Auray.

Pleyben (horse races) ; Pldban-
nalec ; Pouldreuzic ; Plougo-
melin; Huelgoet; S. Nicod^me
in Plumeliau (M.) (Cattle
blessed; second day horse fair,
and girls sell their tresses to
hair merchants).

Guiler ; Langolen ; Loc Tudy ;
Plouneour-Menez (du Relecq);
Berrie^i.

THE PARDONS 85

3rd Sunday in August .

Coat-^-Mal.

4th „ „

Pouldergat.

LiSSt ,, ,,

Chateauneuf (P. des Fortes)];

Plommodiern (on the Menez-

hom).

Aug. 15 th (the Assump-

G-uern ; Clohars ; Carnoet ; Fol-

tion) and Sunday after

goet ; Ploneour ; Quemeneven

(Kergoat) ; Beuzec-Cap-Sizun ;

Guipavas.

ist Sundayin September

Brasparts. Folgoet.

Sept. 3rd

Belon (near Pontaven), grand pro-

cession. Taul^ (at Peuze') ;

Bulat-Plestiven.

2nd Sun. in September

Plouescat (du Calvaire) ; Ergud-

Gaberic (Chap, de Kerdevot) ;

Combrit ; Porzay (N. D. de la

Clarte); Lanbellec; Lagonna ;

Plozevet ; Lanriec, Tremor-

vezen in Nevez.

31'd „

Guiss6ny ; Pleyben-Christ ; Tre'-

gunc ; S. Jean TroHmon.

4th „

Laneufret ; Lanrivoare.

L,ast ,, ,,

Berhet (C. du N.) ; Beuzec-Conq;

Brasparts (Chapel of S. Michel).

Sept. 14th and Sun. after

Plounevez-Lochrist.

„ 1 6th „ nearest

Carnac (M.)

,, Sunday after

Ploumelin.

„ 25th

Gouesnach (Chapelle de S.Cadou).

In most cases it is necessary for the visitor to
be at the place the day before, as pilgrims arrive
on the eve, and often sleep in the churches, and the
ceremonies begin at break of day. If accommodation
cannot be had, drive over early from the nearest
town. Secular festivities are after the religious com-
memorations.

CHAPTER VI
DINAN

Derivation of name — The fortifications and castle — Churches of
S. Sauveur and S. Male — The Place Du Guesclin — Combat there
in 1357 — Lehon— Foundation of the abbey — Stealing a body —
Destruction — S. Jacut — The Mairie — Count de la Garaye — Chateau
de Conninais — Menhir at S. Samson — Corseul — Tomb of an
African mother — Dol — S. Samson — Dol made an archbishopric
— A married archbishop— A boy elected — The architecture of the
church — A Taurobolic monument — The forest of Coetquen — The
murdered marchioness — S. Malo and Aleth — Rene Duguay-Trouin
— The sovereignty of the seas — Theodore Eotrel.

DINAN takes its name from the Dinas or
fortress that in Celtic times crowned the rock
above the Ranee, and occupied a tongue of land
between that river and a lateral valley in which flows
a confluent stream. The fastness was strong by
nature, and required only a series of earthworks to
the north against assailants from that quarter where
alone vulnerable. In later times the town was forti-
fied in the Norman fashion, with semicircular bastions
connected by curtains, the walling pierced at in-
tervals with gates. Of these there were four, but
that of Brest has been of late years destroyed as
interfering with the traffic.

The castle stands to the south-west. It was erected
86

S. SAUVEUR, DIXAN

TWO FINE CHURCHES ^7

in 1382, and now serves as a prison, but will shortly
be converted into a museum. In 1741 it served as
a place of confinement for English soldiers, and these
cut their names and initials in the walls. In 1793
forty priests were incarcerated therein, among them
the cure of Lehon, who died there of ill-treatment.

The town possesses two fine churches, S. Sauveur
and S. Malo. The former was originally a Roman-
esque structure, and a portion of the west front is
in this style, as is also the south wall of the nave.
The north wall was broken down early in the
sixteenth century, and an arcade and side aisle
were appended in the prevalent Flamboyant style ;
at the same time a noble choir was added with apse
and a coronal of apsidal chapels, and with flying
buttresses to sustain the vaulted roof. A central
tower has a slate cap of great elegance and sound
proportions. The original font of the church has
been converted into a holy-water receptacle ; it con-
sists of a stone trough sustained by four figures of
men, whose heads have unhappily been knocked off.

In the north transept is a monument that contains
the heart of Du GuescHn, and in the north aisle is
some ancient glass representing Breton saints.

The church of S. Malo, begun in 1490, is late
Flamboyant throughout, except the south front of the
transept ; that is Renaissance. Flambo}^ant architects
delighted in doing away with the capitals of pillars,
and making their moulded arches grow out of round
pillars without a break. This is the treatment in
both the Dinan churches. It is most unusual in
England, but occurs at Lostwithiel and Fowey.

88 DINAN

The interior of the town contains some charming
bits of street architecture, as does also the Rue de
Jerzual that leads down to the port on the Ranee.
A few years ago it was possible to go from one
end of Dinan to the other under cover, as the houses
projected and the projecting chambers formed a
piazza like those in Italian towns, and like the
" rows " of Chester. But most of these have dis-
appeared to make room for modern vulgarities.
Nevertheless, sufficient remain to give a picturesque
character to the town.

On the Place Du Guesclin occurred a memorable
incident in the life of that Breton hero.

In 1357 the English, under the Duke of Lancaster,
were besieging Rennes. Dinan was then in the
possession of the French, and during the investment
of Rennes, Lancaster made a diversion to Dinan,
which he hoped to reduce without extraordinary
difficulty. After some desultory fighting a cessation
of hostilities was agreed on. During the truce,
Olivier, a younger brother of Bertrand Du Guesclin,
left the town unarmed, when he was made prisoner
by an English knight, Thomas of Canterbury, who
refused to surrender him without a ransom. Bertrand,
who was at the time between Dinan and Pontorson,
when informed of the arrest of his brother, rode into
the English camp and presented himself before the
Duke of Lancaster, loudly denouncing the violation
of the truce.

Thomas of Canterbury made some excuse to
justify his conduct, and then threw down his glove
and challenged the Breton to mortal combat. Du

A BRETON HERO 89

Guesclin at once picked up the glove, and one of the
knights on the EngHsh side offered him his horse.

The combat was arranged to take place in Dinan
itself.

And now ensued a curious incident. A young lady
of noble family in the town, Thiphaine Raguennel,
aged twenty-four years, and who was supposed to
be endowed with second sight, fell into a k'ance, and
in that condition foretold the success of Du Guesclin.
When he was informed of her prognostication he
treated it contemptuously. " Who leans on the word
of a woman is a fool," he said. " A woman has as
much sense in her head as has a sheep."

Some years after Thiphaine became his wife. The
lists for the contest were prepared where is now the
market-place. The Duke of Lancaster with an
escort of twenty knights was suffered to enter the
town, and almost all the inhabitants of Dinan
crowded to see the spectacle.

At the first tilt the lances of both combatants flew
to splinters, and they fought for a while with their
swords, without much result. At last Canterbury,
in his endeavour to cleave the head of Du Guesclin,
missed his aim, and the sword escaped from his hand.
Bertrand at once leaped from his horse, and seizing
the fallen weapon threw it outside the lists.

The English knight turned his horse upon his
adversary, and endeavoured to bear him down with
its weight; but Du Guesclin jumped aside, drove his
sword into the beast, which reared and fell with its
rider. Thomas went down with such a crash that
the laces of his helmet gave way, and his face was

90 DINAN

exposed. Thereupon, in a paroxysm of rage, Bertrand
leaped upon him, and began to mash his face with
his mailed fists. He was with difficulty induced to
desist, and yielded only at the request of the Duke.

Then, as the defeated man was carried off the
field, Du Guesclin knelt to the Duke and said,
" Sieur, but for the respect I bear you, I would have
killed the caitiff."

" He deserved no better fate," replied Lancaster.
" Your brother shall be discharged, and shall receive
a thousand crowns for his equipment. The arms of
the felon knight and his best horse shall be yours."

Dinan should be seen from the river ; thence the
effect of the town with its towers and gables rising
above the steep, rocky, and wooded heights is
eminently picturesque and stately. The river has
been bridged by a viaduct 125 feet above the surface
of the water. Further down stream, at La Hisse, is
the iron railway bridge, the longest single span in
France, and one of the longest in Europe. The
girders were thrust forward by a hydraulic engine,
with enormous weights on the short end till the
centre of gravity was overpassed, when they sank
and lodged on the pier built to receive them.

The river presents scenes of exquisite beauty, and
should be both ascended to Evran and descended to
the sea.

A short mile to the south of the town is the
village of Lehon, clustered about an ancient abbey,
and subsisting on soapsuds, the villagers living on
the washing done for the people of Dinan. The
church of the abbey was ruined at the Revolution,

LEHON 91

but has been restored, for the most part well. The
east window, however, is a conception of the modern
architect, and is bad. The stained glass is only
endurable as giving the history of the foundation
of the abbey. The story of the foundation is curious
enough.

One da}' Nominoe, King of Brittany, was hunting
by the Ranee, when he lighted on a few hermits
living in this warm and secluded spot, who at once
clamoured for a grant of land on which to erect
a monastery.

"But where is your body?" inquired Nominoe.
" No saint, no site."

To understand this we must go back to pre-Celtic
usage.

Among the primitive inhabitants of the land, in
Britain, Ireland, and Armorica alike, no man could
assure to himself undisputed and inalienable landed
property //// he was dead. Only when a tomb
contained him did he become a landed proprietor
who could not be dispossessed. His family thence-
forth acquired legal rights as guardians of the tomb.

The Celts, Gauls, Scots, Britons alike adopted
many of the ideas and institutions of those whom
they had subdued, and when they became Christians
gave to this legal right a new complexion. A body,
not necessarily of a saint as we understand the term,
guaranteed security of tenure. A saint with them
was not necessarily a pre-eminently holy man, but
a chief of an ecclesiastical tribe or colony. When
once a body was placed in the earth it became the
centre of the clan and of the tribal worship ; and

92 DINAN

about it all the members of the tribe were interred,
piling up with each burial the rights of the clan to
the land.

Thus, when S. Patrick wanted to make a founda-
tion in Ireland at Clonmacnois, a leper who had
been fed and cared for by him supposed that he
could not better return the favour than by allowing
himself to be buried alive on the spot, so as to secure
it to Patrick for ever. So also when S. Columba
settled at lona it was mooted among his monks how
they were to take legal possession of the isle. There-
upon one of them, Oran by name, volunteered to
be buried alive, and his offer was accepted.

Thus it was that when Nominoe was solicited by
these monks for a grant, " I am willing enough," he
replied, " but where is the body ? " The monks were
in a dilemma ; none of them cared to sacrifice himself
like Oran or Patrick's leper. They put their heads
together and considered what should be done. They
happened to have heard that in the isle of Sark lay
the body of a saintly abbot named Maglorius, and
they resolved on stealing it. So one of the little
community took boat and went to Sark on the
pretext that he had come to venerate the dead
man's bones. The monks of Sark were highly
gratified, and the pilgrim at once opened secret
negotiations with the custodian of the tomb. Having
made terms with the fellow, he returned to Lehon
and informed the brethren of his success. Thereupon
they all took boat together and proceeded to Sark,
moved thereto, as they gave out, by the growing
reputation of the saint and the glowing account

ROBBING THE SARKITES 93

given them by their brother. They assured the
monks of Sark that nothing would satisfy their
ardent devotion save a night spent in vigil at the
tomb. The permission for this was readily accorded
by the unsuspicious Sarkites.

In the dead of night the anchorites rifled the
grave, carried off the dead man to their boat, and
they were well on their way to the mainland before
the theft was discovered and when pursuit was
hopeless.

On reaching the coast, the rogues carried
the chest with them from the shore, and, being
hungry and tired, rested in a peasant's orchard, and
tucked the coffin up in a fork of tlie pear tree, under
which they sat to breakfast. One of the anchorites,
after having gnawed his bread, expressed his desire
for a pear.

" Bah ! " said the peasant, " these pears are hard
and sour."

The hermit, however, picked one from the bough
on which rested the chest with the bones, and putting
his teeth into it said, smiling, " Where the sacred
body has reposed, to me the pears will certainly
be sweet and soft."

This saying was, of course, magnified in later years
and distorted into a miracle, and the incident has
been represented in the east window of Lehon
Church.

The abbey continued to exist — hardly to flourish —
till the Revolution. When the storm burst there
were in it six brethren, enjoying good revenues and
leading utterly idle and useless lives ; so much so

04 niNAN

that tho)- had incurred the hatred and disgust of the
[peasantry, who rose in a body and tore the nest
ot tho'^e iillers to pieces. The same took place at
S. Jacut-sur-Mer, now a fax'ourite watering-place.
There the peasants ripped up the ver}* foundations,
leaving" not one single stone upon another. Within
one centurx' the \"er\- tradition as to the actual site
o\ the abbe_\- has gone. A lesson this that nia\'
be taken to heart b\- all well-to-do loafers. Tlie
centur_\- we have entered upon will not endure that
the men o\ means shall not contribute to their fellow-
men's well-being. The class of vacuous loungers,
ot golf and polo pla)-ers, who spend their da\-s in
nothing useful, will be swept awa\- as dirt.

1-iut to return to Dinan itself

The present Mairie was a hospital erected b)- the
Count de la Gara\'e. and the Sisters oi' the Sagesse,
who to this da)' undertake the nursing of the sick
ancl the education of the infants and the young girls
oi the poor in the town, were introduced into the
place b\- this Count.

An easy stroll be_\-ond the raihva_\- station leads
to the ruins oi La Garaye in a lovel)- situation.
The chateau was never large ; it was in the Flam-
bo\-ant st)-le. and contains a fine fireplace and a
good deal of delicate sculpture, but the whole is
utterl)- ruinous : wrecked at first at the Re\'olution. it
has suftered since from neglect.

The Count and Countess de la Gara)'e were a lively
young couple, passionately fond of hunting. In 1710
Claude de la Gara)-e was aged thirt}--six. One day
he and his wife were out riding, when he galloped his

COUNT DE LA GARAYE 95

horse at a ditch. He had just cleared it, when, seeing
that the width was beyond the powers of the mare
his wife rode, he turned in his saddle and signed
to her not to attempt it. Ijut he was too late; her
steed had already risen for the leap. It failed, fell
with the Countess, and rolled with her in the ditch.
She was so severely injured that all hopes of her
ever becoming a mother were at an end, and her
health was permanently affected. This led to a
complete change in the direction of both their lives.
Instead of giving all their thoughts and time to
sport, frivolity, and selfish pursuits, the young couple
resolved on devoting themselves to the alleviation
of the sufferings of the poor.

At the time much ophthalmia prevailed among the
people of the district. M. de la Garaye went to
Paris and studied with the most eminent oculists
there. When he had become a proficient he returned
and built a long edifice at his gates for the reception
of patients suffering in their eyes, and where he could
daily attend to them.

Not satisfied with this, he erected the pile which
has since been converted into the Mairie, as well
as a convent for the grey and white Sisters of the
Sagesse, who were to minister to the sick and
instruct the little children.

During the war with America a Dillon regiment
was raised by disloyal Irishmen, to fight the English
in Canada. In 1778 two battalions went to Brittany
under Colonel Arthur Dillon, and were placed in
cantonments near Lorient and Brest, and then were
moved to Dinan and Parame, near S. I\Ialo. A great

96 DINAN

many men were placed in the castle at Dinan, when
plague broke out among them and many died, and
the disorder spread to the town. A large number
of these Irish disloyals were buried in the cemetery
of S, Sauveur, now turned into an English garden.
The deaths occurred in March, 1779, and what
remained of the battalions was then removed to
Morlaix.

The chateau of La Conninais is situated within
two miles of the town, in a picturesque spot. At the
Revolution it was not destroyed, but became the
property of a peasant, who disposed of it for one
cow, and it became the possession of the English
family of Foster. It has a picturesque tower, and
a chapel in the Flamboyant style, but the m.ain
building was erected when there was a revulsion in
taste. It contains, among other interesting pictures,
portraits of the Count and Countess of La Garaye.
There are also portraits of the same benefactors at
La Sagesse in Dinan, but so repainted as to have
lost their value.

At S. Samson, on the Dinard road, is a fine menhir,
in a leaning position. Girls scramble up it, and
slide down, and if they can do so without scratching
their hands or falling off, count themselves certain
of getting husbands within a twelvemonth.

Many pleasant excursions may be made from
Dinan. One is to Corseul, the ancient capital of
the Curiosoliti, and a Gallo-Roman city. It bore
the name of Fanum Martis, and served as a quarry
for public buildings round about, amongst others for
Lehon Abbey.

^IIAIEAL Dli LA

CU.XMNAIS, I)1.NA>

MONASTERY OF DOL 97

Numerous remains have been exhumed there by
the plough and spade ; among others a monument
erected by an /Vfrican legionary, who was quartered
at Corseuil, to his mother, who, rather than be parted
from her darling son, followed him from the Atlas to
bleak and rainy Armorica.

Another excursion is to Dol.

This was a monastery founded by S. Samson.
Samson was the son of Amwn the Black, who had
fled for his life from the attentions of a brother who
wanted to slit his gullet, so as to possess himself
of his tribal inheritance. Amwn escaped to Wales,
where he married the daughter of a petty king of
Glamorgan. Samson was anxious to get to Brittany,
but at the time the usurper Conmore was supreme,
and was supported by Childebert, King of the Franks
at Paris.

Samson was for a while in Cornwall, watching
his opportunity. Presently he heard that there was
much discontent in Domnonia, and he sent his
agents throughout the land to work up a revolution.
Then he went to Paris, and persuaded Childebert to
remain neutral. The Frank King was not unwilling
to see the Bretons fly at one another's throats, and he
allowed Samson to take Judicael, or Judual, the right-
ful heir to the throne, and make him the figure-head
of the revolution. Samson then hastened to Jersey,
where he drilled soldiers, and at a given signal crossed
with his men, whilst the malcontents in Brittany rose.
Conmore was killed, Judicael enthroned, and Samson
was largely rewarded for his services. Dol became a
well-endowed monastery.

98 DINAN

Years passed, and in the ninth century Nominoe
was King of Brittany, and in a succession of battles
defeated Charles the Bald, and established the in-
dependence of his native land.

He was further determined that not only should
his realm be free, but also the Church therein. He
summoned a council, and several of the bishops
who were Franks were charged with simony, and
forced to admit their guilt and lay down their
crosiers.

Then the King constituted seven sees in Brittany.
There had previously been only three, or possibly
four. He made the see of Dol archiepiscopal, with
jurisdiction over the other six. Hitherto the arch-
bishops of Tours had claimed jurisdiction over
Brittany, but actually never had exercised any that
had been acknowledged by the true Breton Church ;
it had been admitted only by the old Gallo-Roman
sees of Rennes, Nantes, and Vannes. Such a daring
proclamation of independence met with the most
strenuous opposition from the Church of France and
from the Popes. Councils denounced. Popes con-
demned, yet for three hundred years Dol remained
a metropolitan see, though at last with shrunken
authorit}', the older sees having withdrawn their
allegiance from it.

Now and then the Pope was able to steal an
advantage, but it was transitory. At the time of
the invasion of England by the Conqueror the Arch-
bishop of Dol was Juthael, who was under the
protection of Duke Alan HI. After that he was
archbishop Juthael married, and then began to

A YOUNG ARCHBISHOP 99

alienate ecclesiastical estates for the sake of his
children.*

The people of Dol rose against him, and drove
him out. He took refuge with his family at Mont
S. Michel. He was sustained not only by Duke
Alan, but also by William the Conqueror, who sent
his troops into the see, plundering and burning
villages. In their difficulty, the party opposed to
Juthael elected as their archbishop a boy of sixteen,
Gilduin, brother of the powerful Count of Combourg,
and sent him to Rome with a tutor, to be consecrated.
The Pope could not with decency make a lad arch-
bishop in defiance of the canons, so he consecrated
the tutor instead, having first secured from him
unconditional surrender of the liberties and inde-
pendence of the see.

But this success was transitory, and Dol speedily
reassumed its rights, and it was not till 1199 that
Innocent III. succeeded with the aid of the French
Crown in crushing this proud and recalcitrant see.
He reduced it from being metropolitan, and since
the Revolution it has ceased even to be a bishopric.

The ancient cathedral church was in the Norman

* Married bishops were by no means rare ; the clergy were almost
universally so. Tetbald, son of a priest, obtained the bishopric of
Rennes by the influence of his mother's family. When bishop he
married Oivelan, daughter of the Archdeacon of Nantes, and by her
had a son, Walter. On the death of Oivelan, Bishop Tetbald married
again, and had two more sons. On becoming old Tetbald became
Abbot of S. Alelanius, and his son Walter was made Bishop of Renues,
when he married Oideline, and had by her a son, Guarin, and two
daughters. During his life Walter retired from his see, vacating it
for his son Guarin. On the death of this latter his uncle became
bishop. — De la Borderie, Hist, de Bretagne, iii. p. 169.

ICO DINAN

style, but it was burnt by our King John in 1203.
Its reconstruction was commenced soon after. The
church is, accordingly, mainly of the First Pointed
style, but the original Norman drums of pillars
remain, surrounded by disengaged delicate columns,
that are in places bound together by straps of iron.
The church has a square east end, with a magnificent
window in it full of old glass, badly restored. The
south porch is of the fourteenth century.

A little way from Dol rises the Mont Dol, which
was a prehistoric site, and numerous flint tools have
been found there. But something more curious still
was there discovered. A little chapel on the hill had
in it two altars. A few years ago the building was
destroyed to make way for a telegraphic station,
when a very curious discovery was made. The two
altar- slabs were found to be composed each of a
series of nine funnel holes in three rows. All twenty-
seven in each slab had been filled in with plaster
and smoothed over. Outside the chapel were small
doors communicating with chambers beneath the two
altars. This chapel proved to have been originally
a temple for the performance of the Taurobolia in
late classic times, when the worship of Mithras be-
came fashionable. An ox was slain on the altar,
and its blood rained down through the funnels into
the space below, in which crouched the worshipper
who desired to undergo the baptism of blood.
Julian the Apostate, in his desire to wash off his
Christianity, underwent this ceremony.

The forest of Coetquen (the White Wood) is so
called because it was formerly composed chiefly of

A TRAGIC STORY loi

the silver-barked birch. It lies to the east of Dinan.
Of the ruins of Coetquen Castle a tragic story
is told. The Marquis had married a young and
beautiful girl, and she was about to become a
mother when he was called away to the wars, where
he was mortally wounded.

Immediately on hearing the tidings that his life
was despaired of, the two brothers of the Marquis
de Coetquen hastened to the castle, gained the
steward, and in the night conveyed the poor lady
into one of the dungeons, where they left her to die
of starvation.

It was then given out that she had died in child-
bed, and a funeral was arranged, the body to be
conveyed to the church of the Carmelites at Dinan.
All went on as was desired; but it is said that certain
of the servants or retainers of the Marquis managed — •
their suspicions having been roused — to get access to
a window that admitted light into the dungeon, and
they there saw the dead body of the Marchioness
extended on the earth. But their report was dis-
regarded as idle gossip, and no steps were taken to
investigate the matter.

At the Revolution, when the chapel of the Car-
melites was destroyed, the vaults were rifled and the
lead coffins carried off to be run into bullets. Then
that of the Marchioness de Coetquen was discovered
to contain only earth and stones.

Combourg Chateau, the seat of the Chateaubriand
family, with conical slated towers, is in good con-
dition, and it stands in a park. Many relics of the
great writer are there shown.

I02 DINAN

S. Malo should be visited from Dinan, if not
already seen, on leaving the steamer from South-
ampton. The little city occupies a ledge of rock,
a peninsula that can ill contain the town, so limited
is the area.

The ancient city was at Aleth, where is now the
cite, another peninsula between the Anse de Sablon
and the Port de Solidor. Here the foundations of
the early cathedral church have been traced. The
highest point is occupied by a fort.

In the sixth century Aleth was a flourishing town,
occupied almost entirely by the pagan natives,
for few British settlers had come among them till
S. Malo appeared. He had indeed been preceded
by one Aelhairarn, Latinised into Aaron, "The Iron
Brow," a Welsh missioner, whose main foundation
is in Cardiganshire, under the crags and marvellous
rude stone fortress of Treir' Caeri. Leaving his native
land, he came to Brittany and founded a church near
Lamballe. Then in his old age he proceeded to where
stands now S. Malo, and laboured as best he could
for the conversion of the inhabitants of the town
of Aleth. But " one soweth and another reapeth " ;
his success was small, and he gladly welcomed Malo
when he came from Wales, younger in years and
without the discouragement of failure to maim his
efforts.

Malo was first cousin of S. Samson, a disciple
of S. Brendan, whom he had attended during his
seven years' wanderings on the Atlantic, and with
him had discovered the Canaries and Madeira.

Malo succeeded where Aaron had failed ; and he

S. MALO 103

established himself at Aleth, but founded a monastery
on the rock where is now the town that bears his
name. Malo worked like his monks in the fields.
One spring day he took off his hood and hung it
in a tree. When he went to resume it a little jenny
wren flew out, and peeping in he saw that she had
laid an egg there. He left his hood suspended, and
suffered the wren to make of it her nest and to rear
her young therein.

For forty years Malo ruled Aleth as bishop, but
he seems to have become self-willed and ill-tempered
in his old age, and because his flock would not
conform in all things to his wishes he cursed them
roundly and departed, first to Luxeuil, and then finally
to Saintes. There he died on December i6th, 621.

S. Malo was long a nest of corsairs, and the
seadogs there gave rude knocks to the English.
One in particular — Rene Duguay-Trouin — was born
at S. Malo in 1673. War having been declared
between France and England and Holland, the
family of Duguay fitted out a privateer of eighteen
guns, and Rene behaved with such courage on board
that in 1692 he was given command of a frigate
of eighteen guns, when he captured two English
frigates that were escorting thirty merchant vessels,
and brought this fleet of prizes into S. Malo. He
was then aged nineteen. In 1694, in a privateer
armed with forty cannon, he fell on an English
squadron of six men-of-war and engaged them. But
the contest was too unequal, and he was taken and
conveyed to Plymouth, whence he escaped by the
aid of a Devonshire eirl who fell in love with him.

104 DINAN

No sooner was he back than he was given command
of a royal vessel and sent to cruise along the coasts
of England and Ireland. He took six prizes and
then fell in with a fleet of sixty sail escorted by two
men-of-war, and without hesitation he attacked them
and forced them to surrender. For this brilliant
action Louis XIV. sent him a sword of honour.
In 1695 he captured three great Indiamen carrying
a hundred and fifty-four guns. Soon after, on board
the Sans Parcil, an English capture, he cruised
along the coasts of Spain, and, having taken two
Dutch vessels, boldly attempted to break his way
with his captures through the English fleet. The
English, misled by the build of his vessel, allowed
him to pass, but one frigate approached to challenge
him, being perplexed at his independent action. He
at once turned and gave battle, drove the frigate
back, and escaped with his prizes.

In 1696, in command of three vessels from Brest,
he went to meet the fleet at Bilbao and encountered
it, escorted by three men-of-war under the Baron
van Wassenaer. He boarded the commandant's
vessel and took it. All the Dutch officers were
killed or wounded, and Duguay-Trouin lost three
of his kinsmen in the engagement. This victory
was followed by a frightful storm, in which it was
found necessary to cast all the cannon overboard.
The water poured into the hold, and the wounded,
screaming with pain and terror, endeavoured to
escape drowning b}' dragging themselves up the
ladder. It was impossible to help them. When
Dugua\' was relating his adventures to Louis XIV.

DUGUAY-TROUIN 105

he said, " Then I ordered the Gloire to follow me."
" Sir ! " interrupted the King, " la gloire vous a
toujours suivic."

Duguay-Trouin hovered in 1704 along the English
coasts, took a man-of-war of a hundred and forty-
four guns and the convoy of twelve merchant vessels.
He was ennobled by the King after having taken
over three hundred merchantmen and twenty English
and Dutch men-of-war. He died in 1736.

We flatter ourselves that England always had the
command of the seas ; that is because our histories
slur over the facts of the naval contests at the close
of the seventeenth century. The plain truth is that
it was the French in the reign of Louis XIV. who
held the supremacy, and that they did so was mainly
due to the boldness of the Breton sailors.

To return again to Dinan.

It is the native place of M. Botrel, the peasant
poet of Brittany, the son of a blacksmith. The
family has been one of the forge for several genera-
tions. The ancestral anvil was in a hamlet, near
Dinan, and in the commune, but as business was bad
the father was constrained to move into the town.
The little Theodore, however, did not accompany
his parents, but was placed with his grandmother and
his uncles, and was passed from one to the other,
eating the bread of the poor, living upon charity,
listening to the songs of the peasants, drinking in
their old tales. Brought up in the midst of old-
world ideas, his mind was steeped in the simple
poetry of the people. He earl}- developed a happy
knack of composition ; but his verses are not mere

io6 DINAN

rhyme, but contain ideas, and reveal the presence of
genuine poetic power. He understood that the
folk-songs that were in general use were sorry
stuff, and new importations were not a little coarse.
He applied himself to the task of recreating the
popular poetry of Upper Brittany, and has been
to the French-speaking portion of Armorica what
Edwin Waugh has been to Yorkshire, Barnes to
Dorsetshire, and Robert Burns to Scotland. What
Hebel has done for the Black Foresters, and Rosegger
for the Carinthians, that has Theodore Botrel done
for the folk of Ille-et-Vilaine and C6tes-du-Nord.
As he himself says, " We are menaced with a great
evil. Not only is the Breton tongue threatened, but
the Breton soul itself. That flower of sentiment
which was its beauty is ready to shrivel up at contact
with a materialistic civilisation. Vulgar songs are
penetrating throughout the land of the saints,
brought home from the barrack and dropped by
commercial travellers. I have done what I can to
substitute for these depressing compositions some-
thing that shall smell of the broom and contain a
waft of the soil."

I shall give a specimen later on — "La Paimpolaise,"
that has taken hold on the affections of the people,
both on account of its pathos and the sweetness of
the melody to which it has been wedded.

CHAPTER VII

S. BRIEUC

The origin of S. Brieuc — The arrival of Brioc — Meets Rhiwal — The
city — The well and cave — The port — Viaduct of La Meaugon —
S. Mawgan — Floufragan — Three-breasted Gwen— Wild horses —
Institution of races — Vitrified fortress of Pcran— How constructed
and when — The blessing of the fleet.

THE origin of this cathedral city is as follows.
At the close of the fifth or early in the sixth
century Brioc, an abbot, arrived in a coracle covered
with hides, along with a hundred and sixty-eight
followers, at the mouth of the Gouet. Brioc was a
native of Cardiganshire ; his father was Irish, and
his mother Saxon. The Irish had occupied the
whole seaboard till expelled by a great effort of
the British under the sons of Cunedda ; and it was
due to this that Brioc was constrained to migrate
from his native land — though his biographer avers
that he left out of pure devotion.

The estuary of the Gouet is a creek of some miles
in length running between precipitous or steep hills.
Brioc ran his vessel up as high as the tide would
carry him, then disembarked and looked out for a
spot on which to settle. Now immediately above
where the tide reached is a fork formed by the course
of a little side stream entering the valley of the

107

io8 S. BRIEUC

Gouet, and this tongue of land had undoubtedly been
fortified in prehistoric times. Brioc and his party
ascended to it, and with stakes cut in the forest that
clothed the country he was able to make the old
mound drawn across the neck serviceable to protect
him and his community against wolves.

The arrival of this party of strangers had attracted
the attention of a steward of Rhiwal (Hoel the Rig, or
King) who had established his court at Hilion, not
five miles distant. The steward reported the arrival
to his master, who came to the spot to see who the
new-comers were ; to his joy he recognised, if not
exactly a relation, as the biographer asserts, yet one
from the same part of Wales as himself, and with
whose family he was acquainted. Rhiwal, in fact,
was the son of Budoc, who had been driven out of
Cornouaille in a family quarrel, and had taken
refuge in what is now Pembrokeshire and Carmarthen.
They discussed old scenes and mutual acquaintances,
and in the end Rhiwal gave up to Brioc the old fort
and a tract of land around it.

About three miles south was another colonist,
called Brychan, or Fragan, who had come from
Cornwall and was cousin to Cado, duke of that
country.

Brioc now settled his followers on the land accorded
him, and when Rhiwal died, this chief further in-
vested his friend with his plou or domain on the
further side of the Bay of Yffiniac. By this means
Brioc became well estated, and in the Middle Ages
the bishops of S. Brieuc ruled as temporal lords over
their county.

BRIOC 109

The city which grew up on the site of Brioc's
settlement is composed of tortuous streets, and
contains some very picturesque old houses of wood
and plaster. The cathedral is not striking ex-
ternally but is dignified within, and possesses many
admirable examples of leaded glazing, immeasurably
more beautiful than the odious modern painted glass
so prevalent in the French churches, and of which
there are some particularly villainous examples in the
cathedral.

The town is composed of many convents, and nuns
in white wool flutter up and down the streets like
gigantic moths. The modern churches are about as
ugly as can be conceived.

The old fountain and chapel of S. Brioc in the
Flamboyant style deserve a visit, for both are pic-
turesque ; the spring rises in the cave of the saint
to which he was wont at times to resort for prayer
and commune with God. By a flight of steps
leading from the right side of the altar the cave
can be descended to.

A walk down the valley to the port is advisable.
The port is two miles from the town. A steamer
runs between it and Plymouth, till it is wrecked, a
fate that has overtaken three, the Chamiel Queen, the
Rossgull, and the Legue. No omnibus meets the
boat, and no cabstand is at the port, so that pas-
sengers on arrival are put to some inconvenience.

From the port a path climbs the hill to the Tour
de Cesson, that commands the mouth of the Gouet,
and a glorious view of the Bay of S. Brieuc.

The valley of the Gouet is picturesque, a cleft

no S. BRIEUC

between steep granitic hills, in spring golden with
broom and gorse. A walk that will well repay the
visitor is the ascent of this valley to La Meaugon
Viaduct, a bold structure in two tiers, and rising
1 80 feet above the level of the stream. The superior
stage consists of twelve arches, the lower of six.
To judge of its height it is advisable to walk along
the footway over the lower stage. Beyond is the
little village of La Meaugon (Lan-Meugaint). The
saint, who was a native of Wales, is represented in
a window of fifteenth-century glass, boldly drawn in
brown and yellow, as good as if done by the hand
of Albert Durer. In the churchyard is a granite
Calvary.

To Meugaint — Mawgan, also called Mancen — Ire-
land owes a debt of gratitude that has never been paid.
Yet without him it may be doubted whether S. Patrick
would have achieved his magnificent work. Mawgan
was the head of the great colleges for missionaries,
that sent a stream of trained disciples into the island
to carry on the work begun by Patrick, to build on
the foundations he laid. His great colleges were
Whiterne, in Galloway, and Tygwyn (the White
House) on S. David's Head, in Pembrokeshire — the
one to supply the north, the other the south of
Ireland with clergy. No life of Mawgan exists ; if
ever written, it has perished ; but we obtain notices
of him from the biographies of his pupils. The life
of a schoolmaster is uneventful and prosaic, but of
infinite importance. Mawgan had nurseries in Corn-
wall and in Brittany, where the young candidates
for the mission field were gathered in, and when

PLOUFRAGAN in

instructed were sent on to him to one or other of
his great houses in North Britain and Wales. Thence
he despatched them to Ireland.

A visit to Ploufragan hardly repays the trouble.
The church is modern and good, but the steeple is
thin as a stick of asparagus. Fragan (Brychan) is
represented in the church by a statue of a king in
mantle, Roman armour, a crown, and holding sword
and sceptre. As a matter of fact there was little
of royalty about him except his blood. He arrived
in Armorica in a somewhat woeful condition, along
with his wife Gwen and three children. Gwen had
been twice married ; by her first husband she was the
mother of S. Cadvan. Now, according to a Welsh
expression, a woman who had become a mother by
two husbands was called " The Three - breasted."
This expression became antiquated and was mis-
understood, and the fable grew up that Gwen actually
possessed three breasts, and that she suckled her
three younger children simultaneously at them. In
this guise she is represented in statuary in two or
three places, but not at Ploufragan. Brychan* es-
tablished himself where is now the village that bears
his name, with his retainers about him.

He and Rhiwal were on good terms, and he recog-
nised the other as his king. At the time the forests
of Armorica abounded in wild horses, which galloped
about in great troops. Both the chiefs devoted them-
selves to the chase of these horses, and with decoys

* B in composition becomes F. Plou - Brychan became Plou-
fragan, and then it was forgotten that his name was Brychan, and
he was called simply Fragan.

112 S. BRIEUC

and pitfalls managed to capture a good many, and
then set to work to tame them. In time each had
a fine stud, and when they met they were disposed
each to extol his own. To settle who had the best
they started races about the year 480 on the sandy
flats of the Anse d'Yffiniac, with a group of rocky
points such as those off the Tour de Cesson as goal,
and the boys of each plou acted as jockeys. The
first race on record in Brittany was between the
tamed horses of Brychan and those of Rhiwal.
The steeds, however, went wild, forgot the docility
that had been imposed on them, and tore madly
about on the sands. Only one, mounted by a boy
called Magi, son of Conomagl, Brychan's steward,
obeyed the rein and flew straight as a dart to the
goal. But just as the horse was about to reach it
and deserve the prize, it put its foot in a hole,
stumbled, fell, and threw its rider, who was picked
up insensible. One of the sons of Brychan, Winwaloe
by name, ran to the succour of the little jockey, and
succeeded in bringing him to his senses again. He
had been stunned by the fall on the sand, but no
bones had been broken. This is the first incident in
the life of a sufficiently noted man who has left his
stamp on Western Finistere, and of whom we shall
hear more in the sequel*

More interesting than Ploufragan, which has
nothing but its historical associations to recommend
it, is the vitrified Castle of Peran, that can be

* Brychan was cousin of Cado, Duke of Cornwall. It is significant
that both his name and that of his steward Conomagle are met with on
inscribed stones of the period in Cornwall.

A VITRIFIED FORTRESS 113

reached by taking the train to S. Julien, the first
station on the line to Loudeac. The camp is in the
shape of an ellipse, and the defence was composed
of a rampart of loose stones put together without
order, with a revetment of earth. It is 12 feet wide
at the base, 4 feet at top, and is about 7 feet high.

What is interesting about this camp is that it has
a vitrified core, and that it reveals the process where-
by vitrification was effected. On being cut through,
the mound exhibits its structure in section. It shows
a mass of loose walling 9 feet thick, with a kernel of
scoria and glass that has been produced by a fire
of great intensity in the centre of the wall. On the
outside the walling is loose and uncompacted, but
the interior is welded together by a vitreous paste
that holds pieces of quartz and undissolved granite
in suspension. So soon as liquefaction began, the
molten matter ran like honey among the interstices
of the stone and, where sufficient in quantity, sealed
them together, where insufficient left only a glaze on
the surface of the stones.

Where the fire was most intense it has left a core
of glass from bottom to top, but where weak there
exists only a pudding of vitrified matter from 3
to 6 feet thick. Everywhere the fire seems to have
been maintained in sufficient intensity to decompose
the fusible elements in the stone of which the wall
was composed, and to profoundly alter the character
of such as would not melt. According to a local
tradition, the fires were maintained for seven years
before the entire camp was surrounded by a wall
of srlass. The hearths were at a distance of about

114 S. BRIEUC

12 to 1 6 feet apart. To what race and age is this
glass castle to be attributed ?

A medal of Germanicus and some Roman tiles have
been found in it, and a Roman road runs by it, but
this proves nothing further than that the Romans
made use of the camp. One cannot conceive the
master-builders of the world having recourse to such
a clumsy and laborious process for cementing the walls
of a fortress. Any amount of lime was accessible
from the sands of Yffiniac, composed of broken shells.
It has been shown by experiment that for the vitri-
faction of 6 feet of such walling a fire would have
to be maintained at full blast for fifteen days. Now
the rampart surrounds an ellipse measuring 400 feet
long and 330 feet wide. Conceive of the labour and
expenditure of fuel required to convert such walls
into a conglomerate of bad glass ! It is surely evi-
dent that this castle must have been erected by a
people who had no knowledge of the use of lime-
It is also probable that the attempt to compact walls
by vitrifaction cannot have been lasting, as the result
is by no means commensurate with the labour ex-
pended upon them.

It is curious how in fairy tales the tradition of glass
castles hung on, and is continually met with.

On the first Sunday in February the fleet of fisher-
men for Iceland arrives from Binic at the port of
S. Brieuc, when the bishop and clergy come down in
procession from the cathedral and bless the vessels
and the sailors starting on their perilous voyage that
lasts some nine months.

i^i-^.JStS>iai^

THE FISHEKMAN S WIDOW

CHAPTER VIII
TREGUIER

Paimpol — The fleet for the Iceland fishery — I-oss of lives — Tombstones
— Superstitions — Pierre Lotti's PAhetir d^ hlattde — "La Paim-
polaise" — The churches of Paimpol — Treguier — The cathedral — The
tomb of S. Yves — S. Tugdual — The tomb of Pompeia — Curious
mistake — S. Yves at Tredarzec — Praying to Death — The privilege
of cursing — La Roche Derrien— The battle — The chapel of Lanleff
— A Dance of Death — Minihi Treguier — Manufacture of "old"
carved oak.

PAIMPOL is the terminus of a branch Hne from
Guingamp. To reach Treguier the trav^eller
descends at Pontrieux, where the station is above a
mile from the town, and takes a place, if there be
room, in the ramshackle conveyance that meets the
train, and into which often more passengers are
squeezed than comports with comfort. PVom Paimpol
starts every year a fleet of fishing boats for Iceland.
The day is February 20th, on which a procession
of the clergy descends to the harbour, and the boats
and their crews are solemnly blessed before de-
parture.

Formerly the vessels for Iceland started on April
1st, but since 1863 the date has been thrust back
to February 20th. Vessels to the number of 170

ii6 TREGUIER

or 1 80 leave Paimpol and the other Httle ports on
the Bay of S. Brieuc. Dunkerque and Gravelines
with the Breton ports furnish in all some 1,400 fisher-
men engaged in the Iceland fisheries. The little
cemeteries at Paimpol, Persos Hamon, Dahouet,
Binic, and S. Quay tell a sad tale. Memorial crosses
and inscriptions have been reared there over empty
graves, made for fathers of families, husbands and
brothers, whose bodies have been swallowed by the
deep sea. Perdu en vier is met with again and
again. Here is one inscription as a specimen : " To
the memory of Sylvestre Camas, swept from the deck
and lost in the Nordfjord in Iceland, aged 16 years,
1 8 June, 1886." Over these untenanted graves tears
are shed, prayers offered, and on them garlands are
laid on the Jour des Moris.

It is a popular belief that on All Souls' Eve the
drowned mariner comes from his watery grave to lie
and drain away the brine with which he is drenched
in the tomb prepared for him in the churchyard at
home.

Paimpol is the scene of Pierre Lotti's story,
Pccheur d'Islande, of which the hero and heroine
were real personages. Yann, the hero, however,
never married Gaude. He could not forgive the
novelist for having drowned him. He regarded it
as a bad presage. " It is certain to bring misfortune
to me," he often said, and verily he was lost
at sea, when returning from the Iceland fishery,
at the entrance to his native harbour, in 1899. He
was a broad-shouldered, kindly, simple-hearted man,
nearly forty years of age. La Gaude is still alive,

A PAIMPOL "CHANSON" 117

and is readily pointed out to anyone interested in
seeing her.

Here are some couplets from a Paimpol chanson
by Botrel : —

" Quittant les genets et sa lande
Quand le Breton se fait marin,
En allant aux peches d'Islande,
Voila quel est le doux refrain,
Que le pauvre gas (gars)
Fredonne tout bas
J'aime Paimpol et sa falaise,

Son vieux clocher, son grand Pardon,
J'aime sourtout la Paimpolaise
Qui m'attend au pays Breton.

" Quand leurs bateaux quitent nos rives,
Le cure leur dit, ' Ales bons fieux
Priez souvent Monsieur Saint Yves
Qui nous voit des cieux toujours bleus.'
Et le pauvre gas
Fredonne tout bas,
Le ciel est moins bleu, n'en de'plaise

A Saint Yvon, notre patron.
Que les yeux de la Paimpolaise
Qui m'attend au pays Breton.

" Le brave Islandais, sans murmure
Jette la ligne et le harpon,
Puis dans un relent de saumure
II se comble dans d'entre pont,
Et le pauvre gas
P^redonne tout bas
Je serious bien mieux a mon aise

Les draps tires jusqu'au menton
A cote de la Paimpolaise

Qui m'attend au pays Breton.

ii8 TREGUIER

" Puis quand la vague le designe
L'appelant de sa grosse voix,
Le brave Islandais se resigne
En faisant le signe de croix
Et le pauvre gas
Quand vient le trepas
Serrant la medaille qu'il baisse,
Glisse dans I'ocean sans fond
En songeant a la Painipolaise
Qui I'attend au pays Breton."

Paimpol (Pen-pol, the head of the pool) has a
church with columns and arcade of 1325, and with a
fine Flamboyant east window. It contains a curious
Paschal candle, the light of which burns from the
Resurrection to the x'\scension, the Forty Days of
our Lord's sojourn on earth founding His Church,
and a triptych of the sixteenth century. In the
neighbourhood are the ruins of the abbey of N. D.
de Beauport of the thirteenth century. The church
has disappeared, but the stately refectory remains.

Trcguier can be reached from Paimpol, a public
conveyance passing daily, once in winter and twice
in summer, between the towns. The Trieux is crossed
on a suspension bridge.

Treguier is on the tidal river Jaudy, and occupies
a tongue of land at the confluence of the Guindy
with the Jaudy. The river below the city somewhat
resembles the Fal from Truro to the sea.

Treguier itself is a dull town, with poor shops and
few picturesque houses, but contains a fine cathedral,
whose proportions, internally, are eminently pleasing.
The church possesses a spire of open stonework,
not satisfactory, as the perforations lack beauty and

THE CATHEDRAL 119

richness such as make those of Strassburg and
Freiburg so fine. They consist of sHts in the stone-
work that let in the rain, and compel the careful
roofing over of the tower beneath, so as to shed
from it the water that these holes invite to stream
in. Our English spires have often windows in them,
but these are upright and in gables. Such is not the
case with that of Treguier, La Roche Derrien, and
other Brittany spires of the same period and
character.

The northern tower, called that of Hasting,
commemorates in its name the Norse viking who
ravaged the coasts. It is the earliest portion of the
church. On the same side are the cloisters.

The cathedral contains the reconstructed tomb of
S. Yves, but not his body. It is, in fact, a mere
cenotaph. S. Yves, the patron of lawyers, was
himself an ecclesiastical lawyer, advocatus scd non
latro. He was born in 1255 at the chateau of
Kermartin near Treguier, and brought himself into
notice by his honesty and integrity in the discharge
of his duties. He was, moreover, immensely charitable
to the poor, and converted the house into a veritable
hospital. He died in 1303, and in the popular estima-
tion has eclipsed the light of S. Tugdual, the founder
of Treguier.

After the cathedral, which has ceased to be the
seat of a bishop, the only objects in Treguier of any
merit are a couple of old houses or towers at the
port, and these form an effective picture.

Treguier was founded by S. Tugdual. His mother
was Pompeia, sister of the Rhiwal who received

I20 TREGUIER

S. Brioc. She was married to Hvvyl, or Hoel the
Great, in Wales, and on becoming a widow she
crossed to Armorica with her two sons Tugdual
and Leonore.

Her tomb may be seen at Langoat (the Church
in the Wood) in a modern church Hke a converted
railway station, and is the sole object of interest
therein. It is of 1370, and is of white marble.
It represents her recumbent, with her feet on a
rabbit. A peculiarity noticeable here, as in the
shrine of S. Yves and very generally, is that on the
tombs in Brittany the figures are placed with their
feet to the west and heads to the east, the reverse
of all tombs in England, and generally through
Christendom. On the sides are curious bas-reliefs
representing her legend, (i) Her birth; (2) she
is committed by her father and mother to a clerk
for education ; (3) her voyage to Brittany with
S. Tugdual; (4) distributing alms; (5) her life at
Langoat, receiving a visit from her son ; (6) her
death. The same subjects are shown in modern
stained glass in the east window.

Beside Tugdual and Leonore, she had a daughter,
Saeva (Ste. Seve), who is represented as a nun in
one of the windows.

In the church will be seen a statue of Tugdual
habited as a pope, wearing the triple crown. This
arises from a curious blunder.

Tugdual was regarded, not by his monks only, but
also by the people generally, with such affection that
he was commonly called Pabu or Father, and a
church of his foundation in Finistere is known as

S. TUGDUAL 121

Lanpabu. But in the Middle Ages, when the earHer
and simple lives of the saints were recomposed and
adorned with all sorts of rhetorical and legendary
flourish, a biographer was puzzled over this appella-
tion of Pabu, and rushed to the conclusion that he
must have been a pope. Having satisfied his mind
with this explanation, he next invented a series of
incidents relative to the elevation of the modest
Breton abbot to the supreme pontificate. He said
that Tugdual had gone on pilgrimage to Rome, and
arrived there just as the Pope died. Suddenly, in
the sight of all the people, a white dove descended
and rested on the head of the saint, whereupon by
general acclaim he was elected pope. He ruled the
Church for two years, and then, mounting a flying
horse, sent him from heaven, went through the air
back to Treguier.

Now there is an early, almost contemporary life of
Tugdual that contains not a word of all this non-
sense. That was added in a life composed about the
year 860. S. Tugdual died in or about 559.

Tugdual, although a veritable apostle both of
Finistere and the district about Treguier, is almost
forgotten in the superior effulgence of S. Yves, the
sole Breton saint who has been canonised at Rome.
Devotion to him is accordingly as much encouraged
by the clergy as that to the local Celtic saints is
discountenanced. But to S. Yves has been trans-
ferred something of the pagan cult that has prevailed
in the country from remote antiquity.

On the further side of the Jaudy, in the parish of
Tredarzec, stood formerly a chapel once dedicated to

122 TREGUIER

S. Sulien. But Sulien had become antiquated and
out of fashion, and an image of S. Yves therein
became an object of a remarkable devotion. To it
all such had resort as esteemed themselves to have
been wronged, and who desired revenge on those
who had injured them.

At the Revolution the chapel was unroofed, and
it fell into ruin, but the ossuary remained, and the
venerated image was transferred to it. I\I. le Braz
has recorded his reminiscences of a visit made by
him as a boy to this shrine in company with an old
woman, a professional pilgrim, that is to say a person
who for the pa\"ment of a small sum would discharge
an inconvenient vow taken by another, or visit some
holy spot on behalf of another who desired some
advantage from such a visit, but was unable to go
there in person.

Now it chanced that the captain of a smack and
a sailor whom he employed had fallen out, and one
day the boat was upset and the captain drowned.
At the funeral, the captain's widow in a loud voice
denounced the sailor as the murderer of her husband.
Thenceforth this unfortunate man was shunned, and
no captain would give him employment. In his
distress and resentment at the unjust slur cast upon
him, he had recourse to the old woman, and stipu-
lated to pay her a sum of money if she would make
the pilgrimage to S. Yves at Tredarzec, and obtain
redress from him, and the chastisement of his accuser.

According to usage the old woman put a coin in
her shoe, and so hobbled to the shrine, taking the
little boy with her, who has recorded his recollections

S. YVES 123

of the pilgrimage. On reaching the bone - house,
where in the shadow, ghastly and mildewed, could
be seen the image, she fell into an ecstasy of
devotion, and repeated again and again, " If we have
done wrong, punish us ; if we be wronged, let the
legs of the wrongdoer rot away ! " Then, having
withdravvn the coin from her sabot, she placed it at
the foot of the image.

Now it so fell out that not long subsequently the
captain's widow was struck with inflammation of her
foot, and the leg mortified, and so she died, where-
upon the entire parish was satisfied that the sailor
had been wrongfully accused. " The Advocate of
the Poor" had taken up his cause.

A new rector of Tredarzec arrived, and finding
that the statue was persistently sought by the people
of the whole neighbourhood to obtain revenge on
their enemies, in 1879 he levelled the ossuary with
the dust, being himself the first to apply the pick
to it, and the statue he removed to his barn.

One day he was greatly annox'ed by some peasants
coming to him, and entreating to be permitted to
visit the statue and solicit the advocacy of the saint.
He dismissed them with a sharp reprimand.

Next morning he v/as found dead in his bed. He
had actually died of apoplexy ; but the parishioners
insist that he was strangled in his bed by the image,
which descended in the dead of night from the barn,
ascended the stair to his bedroom, and there fell on
him and killed him with its wooden hands.

Though the chapel and ossuary have been levelled
and even the foundations torn up, and the image

124 TREGUIER

has been either burnt or concealed, yet superstitious
behefs are not so easily eradicated, and a woman, who
had been defrauded by her lawyer, not long ago
spent a night prostrate on the spot where the chapel
had been, crying to the righteous Advocate to avenge
her on her enemy. In 1892 a woman in the neigh-
bourhood who was in a languishing condition was
pointed out as one stricken by the " Advocate of the
Poor " in answer to a petition offered to him against
her.

In Ireland there are several holy wells and ruined
chapels that are resorted to for the same purpose.
These are provided with round pebbles that lie on
the altar or wall, and have to be turned about so
many times to bring down a curse on the person
denounced. There was a chapel, or well, in Wales
that was resorted to till recent days for the same
object.

In Devon and Cornwall certain wise-women are in
request, who " ill-wish " those whom such as have
been wronged desire to see punished. That all this
is a relic of early paganism can hardly be a matter of
question, for we can trace the process in transforma-
tion.

It was one of the legal privileges or obligations
of the Druid to curse ; and it was held that a curse
once launched could not be recalled. Kings and
chiefs took their Druids with them, as Balak took
Balaam with him, to curse their enemies. Among
the primitive population there was no executive.
The law was known, but each man who was wronged
had to carry the law into force as best he might.

A LEGAL RIGHT TO CURSE 125

If he were poor and could not do so by violence,
he went to a Druid, stated his case, and asked him
to curse the wrongdoer, just as now one who is
aggrieved will go to a magistrate to obtain a summons.
It was a legal right accorded to the weak, whereby
they might redress wrongs to which they were sub-
jected.

When the Druids fell out of repute the Christian
saints stepped into their places. We are told of
an Irish king who when about to go to war sent
for a saint to curse his enemies, on the plea that
his court Druid was too old to do the job effectually.
When Dermot Mac Cearboil went to war with the
Clan Niall, although he was a Christian, he took
with him in his campaign a Druid to pronounce
curses on the enemy ; and the Clan Niall took
S. Columba with them to deliver his counter-curses.
S. Malo was mightily offended with a man who in
horse-play had tied one of his monks hand and foot
and left him on the strand to be rolled over and over
by the advancing tide. In ungovernable wrath Malo
cursed the man and all his progeny to the ninth
generation.

We must not be too shocked at this cursing as
practised by the Celtic saints. It was a legal right
accorded to them, hedged about with certain re-
strictions. It was a means provided by law and
custom to enable the weak, who could not redress
their wrongs by force of arms, to protect themselves
against the mighty, and to recover valuables taken
from them by violence.

Thus the office of cursine and aveneine wrongs

126 TREGUIER

was, in historic times, transferred from the Druid
to the hving saint. It was but another step to pass
it on from the Hving saint to his image or to his dead
body.

La Roche Derrien is at the extreme point to which
the tide rises in the river. At one time it was
dominated by a fine castle, but this has been com-
pletely destroyed. It still possesses, however, a good
Flamboyant church, with a two-aisled transept and
one of the characteristic Breton spires.

La Roche was the scene of one of the most terrible
battles fought in the War of the Two Jeannes. The
English and Bretons who fought for De Montfort
were under the command of Thomas Dagworth ; the
other side, the French, under Charles de Blois.

Dagworth had been appointed by Edward III. his
lieutenant in Brittany, and he inaugurated his entry
on the office by the victory of La Roche Derrien
on June i8th or 20th, 1347. The battle was not one
of chivalric heroism, such as Crecy and Poitiers, but
degenerated into mere butchery. It was fought in
the dead of night. The English had a mot cTordre
given them whereby to recognise one another in the
darkness, and this precaution had been neglected
on the French side. The English were armed with
those terrible axes which had been introduced as a
weapon of war by the Normans. The battle raged
with great fury, the English hewing lanes through
the French with their axes as though felling trees.
Twice Dagworth was taken prisoner and as often
rescued. Charles of Blois was wounded seventeen
times before he surrendered. Quarter was hardly

AT A MANUFACTORY 127

sought or granted. From six to seven hundred on
the French side fell, including the heads of the
greatest Breton families, as de Rohan, Laval Rouge,
Chateaugiron, and Chateaubrian, fighting on the side
of Charles. The defeat was irreparable, and Charles
de Blois, who was taken, was conveyed to England,
where he remained a prisoner for nine years.

From Pontrieux an interesting excursion may be
made to the old Templar church of Lanleff, at one
time supposed to be a pagan temple converted to
Christian use, but which is actually not older than
the twelfth century.

Near by is the chapel of Kermaria, that contains
fresco paintings representing a Dance of Death.
Forty personages are figured, from the king to the
beggar, the pope and the ploughman, all conducted
by Death to the grave.

Near Treguier, at the Minihi, is a great workshop
for carved oak furniture, and of adaptation of old
work to modern ends.

The Breton farmhouses abounded in lits-clos,
shut-up bedsteads, often very rich and handsome
cupboards, wardrobes, and chests.

At this manufactory the lit-clos is converted into
an overmantel or a bookcase, or a cabinet for china.

I saw there some peculiarly fine old panels, and
asked the price. It was very high. I demurred.

"Ah," said the manufacturer, "am I to sell you
my cow for a trifle? It is from this I breed copies.
I have reproductions now on their way to New York,
London, Weissembourg, and Paris."

" But," I observed, " you have the copies."

128 TREGUIER

"A copy of a copy never equals one made from
the original," was the ready reply.

In the large towns of Brittany a vast amount of
carved work is exposed for sale. It is usually very
commonplace, even bad in style, and the bulk of it
is not old at all, only bad copies. But it is eagerly
bought up.

In carved oak, as in architecture and as in painting,
the cultivated eye alone can discern between what
is good and what is bad, what is precious and what
is worthless. No carved oak is valuable unless it
contains evidence of design, a bit of human thought
and imagination moulded in wood.

CHAPTER IX
LANNION

Church of Brelevenez — Chimneys in churches — Geoffry de Pontblanc
— Hospital — Loquivy — White spar — The coast — Tregastel — The
Calvaire — The ossuary — Transfer of bones — Ploumanach —
S. Kirec — S. Quay — N. D. la Clarte — Plouaret — Breton fonts —
Vieux Marche — The chapel of the Seven Saints — Menez-bre —
Story of Huarve — Castle of Tonquedec — Kerfons screen — Trezeni
— The well of S. Sezni.

LANNION is not a town that possesses in itself
-> great attractions, but it forms a centre whence
several interesting excursions may be made.

The parish church, late Flamboyant, with some
wretched, debased windows, has an ignoble tower,
but on the further side of the glen to the north is
the church of Brelevenez, that richly deserves in-
vestigation. It is reached by an ascent of many
steps.

The church is First Pointed. The windows are set
back in the wall, with an outward splay that is never
seen in England. The reason is not far to seek.
On the Continent the glare of the summer sun has
to be excluded, and the interior of the church to
be kept cool. But in England we court the sunshine,
and with our internal splays diffuse the light. More-
over, with our blustering winds an external splay
K. 129

I30 LANNION

would serve to gather the wind in force against the
glass and enhance the risk of having it blown in.

There are a fine south porch and three very curious
buttresses that shoot up like chimneys above the
eaves. One of these actually is a chimney ; and
chimneys may be seen in a good many Brittany
churches near the fonts. Till the thirteenth century
baptism by immersion was regularly in use, and the
fireplaces by the fonts were for the sake of warming
the water, at all events sufficiently to take off the
chill in bitter winter weather. The eastern apse and
apsidal chapels are Romanesque and narrow for the
style. Under the choir is a crypt that contains an
entombment, the figures life-size. The nave has a
blind triforium, but no clerestory.

At the west of the churchyard is a picturesque,
crocketed, and gabled mortuary-house with chapel,
and outside the south transept an ossuary.

The market-place and some of the side streets
of Lannion contain quaint old houses, the most
curious being that of a hatter, with the gable
projecting and lurching forward as if threatening to
tum.ble on its face into the square.

A cross let into the wall of a house in the Rue de
Treguier indicates the scene of an act of barbarity
during the War of Succession — the War of the Two
Jeannes, as it was called, for it was waged between
the partisans of Jeanne de Montfort and Jeanne
de Blois.

Geoffry de Pontblanc held the town against the
English. The latter, under the Earl of Northampton,
had burnt the suburbs of Guingamp, taken La Roche

LOOUIVY 131

Derrien, and had plundered Treguier ; then they
marched on Lannion. In the night they burst the
gates and spread through the town. Geoffry, roused
from his bed, rushed half naked into the street, where
he was set upon. He defended himself gallantly
till he was pierced with an arrow, when he fell. At
once his assailants were on him, and beat out his
teeth. His squire, who came to his rescue, fared
worse ; they scooped out his eyes. The English
freebooters caught Thebaut Meran, a doctor of
law, who was in his night-shirt and barefooted,
laded him with a barrel of wine, and forced him
with their pikes to carry his burden, as he was, all
the way to La Roche (1347).

The finest building in Lannion is the convent and
hospital beyond the bridge by the river. It is of
the Renaissance period, but before appreciation of
traceried windows had passed away. There are in
it two, fine in character. Flamboyant in feeling, yet
executed by a Renaissance architect. To see how
depraved the sense of beauty in this particular be-
came in only a few years, one needs but to look at
some of the windows of Lannion parish church.

An easy stroll takes to Loquivy, the locus penitentics
of S. David, the patron of Wales, who must have
spent some time in Brittany, for there are many
memorials of him there.

The little churchyard contains a lovely fountain
of the best Renaissance work. Why it was set up,
save in the very wantonness of love for what is
beautiful, is hard to say ; there was no need for
it, as outside the cemetery wall is the Flamboyant

132 LANNION

holy well, presided over by a statue of S. David
holding his patriarchal staff, from which the village
derives its water supply.

Within the church in the baptistery is a discarded
reredos, representing in carved oak the Adoration
of the Magi, crowded with figures. The visitor who
has a camera should not fail to devote a plate to
the porch, with its staircase turret, and a gabled
Flamboyant window of the nave as seen from the
south-west corner of the churchyard. It is an
exquisite architectural group.

The roads about Lannion are good, metalled with
white spar that comes from a quartz dyke traversing
the country. Some of the heaps by the roadside are
white as loaf sugar.

North of Lannion there is much to be seen. The
coast is curious rather than fine. There are no grand
cliffs, but much granite jumbled about. The appear-
ance is that of the debris of a granite quarry among
which the sea has worked its way. The stone is
friable, and is quaintly shaped by the action of wind
and rain. The pudding-like lumps stand about in
odd disconnected groups, and assume fantastic forms.
Where not already logans, they are waiting for
another lash of rain to set them swaying.

At Tregastel modern villas have been planted
among them to the disadvantage of the picturesque.
However, out at sea the Seven Isles stand boldly
and nobly outlined above the ever-boiling surf. The
entire coast bristles with reefs that are exposed when
the tide ebbs, and along the whole seaboard there
are vast tracts of sand and rock exposed at such

A CALVARY 133

times. The coast is most perilous, and is studded
with Hghthouses.

On the highest point of Tregastel a Calvary has
been piled up of rude blocks ; it can be ascended by
a winding path, and from the summit the whole
stretch of coast is visible — a terrible death-trap to
sailors. At the foot in a little chapel is this in-
scription : —

"Jete par un naufrage sur des cotes inconnues : Tout
a coup vous apergevez une croix sur un rocher : Malheur a
vous si ce signe de Salut ne vous fait pas couler vos larmes.
Vous etes en pays d'amis : ici sont des chretiens, vous
etes Frangais, il est vrai, et ils sont Espagnols, AUemands,
Anglais peut-etre: Eh! qu'importe? N'etes vous pas de
la grosse famille de Jesus Christ : ces e'trangers vous
reconnaitront pour frere : c'est vous qu'ils invitent par
cette croix : ils ne vous ont jamais vue, et cependant ils
pleurent de joie en vous voyant sauve du desert."

The meaning is obvious enough, if somewhat
clumsily expressed, and we could have spared the
tears.

In Pleumelin - Redon is a fine dolmen, and at
Tregastel the menhir previously mentioned that has
been converted into a cross and covered with the
instruments of the Passion.

The church of Tregastel is of the twelfth century,
with work of the sixteenth, and has a debased and
very villainous east window of late Renaissance. The
fine ossuary with conical roof is of the seventeenth.

Such ossuaries are emptied every fifteen or twenty
years. Then a pit is dug near the cemetery wall,

134 LANNION

and into it the "reliques," as the Bretons term the
bones, are cast indiscriminately. An interesting
ceremony accompanies this transfer.

The Breton churchyards are in the midst of the
villages, and it would be entirely contrary to the
feeling of the people to have cemeteries at a distance,
to banish their dead from among them. The area
is circumscribed, and cannot be extended. Con-
sequently they are compelled to leave their dead in
their graves for only some five years, after which
they are exhumed, and the ground left free for a
new tenant. The bones taken up are cast into the
ossuary. In time the charnel - house becomes in-
conveniently crowded, when it has to be cleared.

A French writer thus describes the second trans-
portation as witnessed by him at Tregastel : —

" Reliques is the term employed by the Bretons for
the bones of all the dead without distinction accu-
mulated higgledy-piggledy in the ossuaries. These
poor relics of humanity remain for twenty, possibly
for thirty years before they are returned to the earth.
A century had elapsed since the last clearing of the
charnel-house of Tregastel, and the bones overflowed
even to the porch. When I arrived on Saturday
evening the sexton was digging a great pit, but the
rock was so near the surface as to make it very
shallow. Two linen shrouds were spread, one on
each side of the porch, and on these were already
disposed some scraps of humanity.

" Within the ' Reliquary ' were a little girl and a
boy of twelve years up to their armpits in the
mouldy fragments ; they were cleaning the bones

A CEMETERY 135

and passing them to a troop of little fellow-workers
of both sexes, who received them reverently in their
aprons, and carried them to one or other of the
sheets disposed for their reception before the church
door. They talked in a low tone, but seemed to
entertain no fear and shrinking. Bareheaded on a
tombstone sat the Jiigart, his sabre between his
knees ; but, as he said, his presence was a mere
formality, and he was not called on to interfere on
account of any unseemly levity on the part of the
children. ' Here,' said he, ' we hold that the obliga-
tion to transfer the relics can be committed only to
the innocent hands of children. To-morrow such as
shall transport them to the pit that is to be their
final resting-place will all have previously com-
municated at the altar in the early morning.'

" In the reliquary, whilst the Jugart talked with
me, the children were swarming as bees, and were
busy on their peaceful occupation. Their aprons
and blouses were filled and then discharged, and the
piles of bones increased on the two white shrouds.

" Next morning, before dawn, was said the Mass
for the dead. All night long lighted candles had
encircled the heaps of bones.

" The procession left the church at 4 a.m. The
parish cross went first, then came the clergy, the
celebrant immediately after the cross, all in funeral
vestments. The officiant stooped at the shroud and
took up a skull, raised it aloft, and this was a token
that the translation was inaugurated. Every one of
the clergy and assistants followed suit, each took
up a bone, even the four choristers in red, who

136 LANNION

stooped and gathered bones as they sang, and the
crowd streamed after, every member of the procession
carrying bones.

" I shall never forget the scene that ensued. Each
of the faithful signed himself on the brow, on the
eyes, and on the mouth with the bone that he had
selected. It was a grey autumnal morning, and the
candles of the choir burnt like phosphorescent points
of light. The procession moved thrice round the
churchyard, and then halted at the pit. Then the
officiant placed the first bone in it, and all followed
in silence, bowing themselves and gently lowering
the fragments, after having kissed them, into the
hole.

" This done, the clergy formed a ring about the
pit, the celebrant incensed it at the four corners,
sprayed it with holy water, and the choir intoned
the Libera and the Dies ircer *

I give an illustration of an ossuary taken in May,
1 90 1. It had just been filled ; the graves having
been dug up after that the bodies had been seven
years in the earth. In several cases the skin still
adhered to the skulls, and a certain number had the
hair almost as fresh as when the bodies were buried.
One had rich copper-coloured curls, exuberant and
shining. The sexton, when spoken to about it, said,
with a shrug of the shoulders, " Mais, monsieur, at an
inn the travellers occupy the beds for two, three, four
days, then the)^ go ; the sheets are changed to receive
others. And this is the Hostelry of the Dead. They
have to turn out of their beds, and these are made

* Le Goffic, Siir la Cote, Paris, 1897, pp. 72-9.

Fl^reC;-

ti^^

S. KIREC

^?>7

ready to receive other travellers to the Unknown
Land. Voila!"

Ploumanach, or the Clan of the Monks, consists of
a cluster of cottages of fishermen among the pudding-
shaped rocks. On a patch of level ground clear of
blocks is the chapel of S. Kirec; but the most singular
object is the oratory of the saint on a rock in the little
bay, that is surrounded by the waves at every tide.

ar~- y -= — «

Fir,. 31, ORATORY OF S. KIREC, PLOUMANACH

It is a pent-house structure with a back towards
the land and open on three sides, sustained by rude
eleventh or twelfth century pillars. It contains a
wooden image of the saint, which is worm-holed and
has lost the hands.

Kirec is the Welsh Curig, He possesses the pecu-
liarity of being the only British saint not of royal
birth. In the Celtic church sainthood was an honour
reserved for those of the bluest blood. It came about
in this way. When a prince or chief died his honours,
authority, and lands were equally divided among his

138 LANNION

children. This was neither poHtically advisable nor
did it please the ambitious. Consequently the most
determined and unscrupulous of the sons said to his
brothers, "Go into religion, or I will cut your throats."
If they were unable to fight for their inheritance
they submitted, and were granted a bit of land and
the right to form a tribe out of runaway slaves and
foreign refugees.

The appointment to the headship of the saintly
tribe was in the hands of the secular chief, and
was an appanage of his family. If there were none
available to become abbot, then, and then only,
were the monks allowed to elect their head ; but the
newly chosen had to give securities that so soon as
one of the royal family was capable of being invested
with the headship of the ecclesiastical clan he would
surrender his saintship.

How Kirec thrust his way into being the chief of a
sacred tribe — in a word, of being a saint — we do not
know, he being a mere roturier. But he succeeded,
and in that stands alone. We are not told much
about him save that he was as rigid a Sabbatarian
as any disciple of John Knox. We shall meet with
him again at S. Pol de Leon.

Further inland is S. Quay, a foundation of Kenan,
known as Kea in Cornwall. He came also from
Wales, but he had as his mother a daughter of the
Irish king of Brecknock. He had to leave Wales
when the great upheaval took place among the
British against their Irish oppressors. He then went
to Cornwall, where the king, Tewdrig, carried off his
oxen from the plough. When Kea went to the

S. PLOUARET 139

palace to complain Tewdrig struck him in the face
with his fist and knocked out his front teeth.

A few years after he migrated to Brittany and
settled near Perros Guirec. There were snobs in
those days as well as in the present, and those who
were on their way to place themselves under Kirec
halted, to submit themselves instead to the abbot
of royal descent. So Kirec found that his position
was menaced, and he moved away to Cleguerec,

On high ground stands the chapel of N. D. de
la Clarte, a good example of Flamboyant architecture
(1544) in its most picturesque mood.

The parish church of Perros has a Romanesque
nave with round arches ; the arcade on the south
side is later than that on the north, which has
capitals with cable mouldings. The aisles are singu-
larly narrow. The east window is barbarous, sham
Gothic of the end of the seventeenth century. The
only side windows are in the south aisle, and are
of the same character. There is a traceried porch
under the quaint tower of the west end.

S. Quay has a church of Second Pointed work with
a good Renaissance tower of 1732.

The Plage de Trestraoun in Perros Guirec is rapidly
growing in favour as a watering-place.

Turning south of Lannion, the visitor will do well
to break his journey to or from Lannion for a few
hours at Plouaret, where he changes carriages.

Here is a church well deserving of study. It is
for the most part of Flamboyant work, with a
fine south porch, and it has a really admirable
Renaissance tower. The church was begun in 1554,

HO LANNION

and shows the gradual change of style. The east
window is peculiarly interesting. Already feeling
against the wavy lines of the flame style was
manifesting itself, and the architect endeavoured to
recur to a more Geometric pattern; but his hand had
not the cunning of the master designers of Second
Pointed, and although rich, it is stiff and unskilful
in design. The font is of a character common in
Breton churches ; it has a side stoup on a disengaged
pillar with a drain to it, budding out from the font
itself.*

North of the village is the fountain of S. Anne,
that gushes from under the roots of an ancient beech
tree. It never fails, and near it are the ruins of a
chapel. But a more interesting visit will be that
made to the Chapel des Sept Saints. On the way
the church of Vieux Marche is passed, a stately and
beautiful modern example of Flamboyant architecture,
all cut in fine-grained granite. Some quaint figure-
carving will be noticed near the north door. The
road descends into a pretty valley, and climbs the
further side that is clothed in broom, and commands
a view of the Menez-bre, rounded as a dish-cover, and
not rising much over 900 feet.

A new road to the left leads direct to the Chapel
of the Seven Saints, rebuilt in 1703-14. The south
transept is constructed above a dolmen, to which
descent can be made from outside, and one finds one's
self in a prehistoric tomb composed of upright slabs

* The large font was for the conservation of the water blessed on
Whitsun Eve, in which were oil and salt. From this limited supply the
water was poured over the child held above the small basin.

A BRITISH BARD 141

and covered with huge granite capstones. According
to popular opinion none can determine the number of
stones of which the monument is composed. This
is conceivable enough, on account of the way in
which the crevices have been stopped with mortar,
and the whole whitewashed, coat over coat, so that
it is not easy to discern where one slab ends and
another begins.

With the Menez-bre a curious story is associated,
but to understand it needs a long preamble, not
without interest, and one that it is well to know
when travelling in Brittany, as it is connected with
several localities and historic personages of the
ancient duchy.

Somewhere about 515, when the great migration
of the Britons to Armorica was in full swing, a
British bard named Hoarvian left his native land
and visited the court of Childebert at Paris. He
quickly acquired the Frank tongue, and being a
skilful improviser, turned his Welsh ballads into
bad French, and playing on the British " rote,"
delighted the ears of the king and of his great
nobles.

He might have lived on at court on the royal
bounty, but his heart craved for the society of his
own people, and leaving Paris, he made his way into
Armorica to see how his brethren were getting
settled in the land to which they had emigrated. He
went to Conmore, the usurping prince who ruled
Domnonia, and told him that he had a desire to
retire from the world and live as a hermit. However,
a day or two after he had made this communication

142 LANNION

he was out with Conmore in the woods hunting,
when they Hghted on a fountain, where a very pretty
girl was washing her clothes. Hoarvian halted and
spoke to her, and fell desperately in love with
the girl, so much so that he entirely abandoned his
desire for the life of an anchorite ; and he asked
Conmore to obtain her for him as wife. The prince
laughed and joked with him on this sudden change
in his disposition, but Hoarvian explained that the
night before he had dreamt that an angel had
appeared to him in a dream and had ordered him
to marry the first pretty wench who struck his fancy.
Conmore accepted the explanation, and the two
sought the girl's brother and obtained his consent.
Her name was Rivanon. She, however, was by no
means disposed to accept the elderly bard, and they
were obliged to appeal to the chieftain of her tribe
to force her to comply with the wishes of Hoarvian.
Then in a fit of furious resentment she cried out,
" You may marry me — if you will, but God's curse
on the fruit of my womb if I bear a child, and
I trust it may never see the light."

The marriage was celebrated, and in due course
a son was born, to whom was given the name of
Huarv^, and he was blind from his birth. The
unnatural mother absolutely refused to nurse him,
and life with the husband became so intolerable
to her, that both agreed to separate. She went
north-west of Brest, to a place since called Lan-
rivoare, where she led a solitary life. Hoarvian also
departed, and the poor little blind child was left to
be brought up by anyone who would trouble him-

A BLIND BARD 143

self to do so. He was taken at the age of seven by
a monk, who trained him in music and in religion.
But when Huarve was aged fourteen he resolved
on going in quest of his wolfish mother, who
had deserted him. He visited a cousin named
Urfoed, whom the Bretons call S. Urfoe, who lived
in a forest, and asked where his mother was. Urfoed
bade him remain with him and help him with a
school he had founded. Then after a while he led
him to Lanrivoare, where he found his mother sick,
and she died in his arms. Having buried her,
Huarve returned to his cousin, and remained with
him till Urfoed also died and bequeathed his school
to him.

But his blindness interfered with his success ; he
could not read, and therefore was unqualified for
teaching ; and the boys took advantage of his in-
firmity to play tricks and be idle. Consequently he
abandoned the school and wandered off in quest
of something more congenial. He seems to have
inherited his father's bardic talent, and thereby was
able to maintain himself. He had found a boy to
act as his guide and helper, and he is usually
represented with this lad at his side.*

At last he settled where is now Lanhouarneau, near
Plouescat, where he founded a religious community,
and, gaining pupils, wandered over the country singing
ballads and instructing his pupils. In a word, his com-

* De la Villemarque fabricated a romantic ballad about S. Huarve
guided by his little niece Christine, who, when the bard was about
to die, begged her uncle to suffer her to attend him to the other world,
and died at the same time. Christine actually was the aunt or cousin
of Huarve, and his guide was a boy.

144 LANNION

munity was actually one of those bardic peripatetic
schools so common among the Celts. S. Samson
of Dol heard of him, and opened negotiations with
him to obtain the overthrow of the usurper Conmore.
Huarve was easily gained to become a political agent,
and he went round in his capacity as a bard stirring
the people up to revolt.

When all was ripe Huarve got together six
saints of Brittany, Gildas of Rhuis among them,
and all seven ascended the Menez-bre.

Now the Celtic usage was this. When a prince
or any great noble was to be denounced to death,
seven bards ascended a height where grew a thorn
tree, each plucked off a thorn from the tree, and
then, all standing back to back about the trunk,
stabbed in the air with the thorn, and united in
uttering a curse which condemned him against whom
the sentence was launched to utter destruction.

This was now done, Huarve chanting the words of
the curse and the rest falling in.

The tidings of what had been done flew like wild-
fire, and men fell away from Conmore on all sides.
In Celtic opinion such a curse must inevitably
produce its result, and when men were convinced
that Conmore was predestined to defeat and death
very few dared to espouse his cause. The end was
that he was killed in battle by Judual, whose claims
S. Samson had espoused.*

* The historian of the life of Huarve wrote late, when the usage
of bardic condemnation to destruction was a thing of the past, and
not understanding what was done, he described it as an ecclesiastical
council of seven bishops. But Huarve was not even a priest, and
Gildas was only an abbot.

TONOUEDFX 145

The blind bard is a favourite saint of the Bretons,
who call him Houarnou, and the French Herve,

His statue may be met with pretty often. He is
represented as a hermit, blind, leaning on a staff,
with a wolf at his feet, a collar about its neck.
Such a statue is at Guimiliau, and there is another
at Lescoet.

His elderly kinswoman, Christine, also receives a
cult, but the clergy are doing their utmost to drive
her out as well as other local saints. She has a
chapel at Plougastel-Daoulas, but there she is re-
presented by a fine modern statue as Christina, a
Roman martyr, whose story is utterly fabulous.

One of the most picturesque castles in Brittany is
near Lannion ; it is that of Tonquedec. It consists
of an irregular polygon divided into three parts,
and with walls of from 9 to 12 feet in thickness,
and is flanked by round towers. The ruin owes
much to its grand situation. The donjon occupies
the point of the promontory that commands the
valley. Beneath the castle are numerous vaulted
chambers, still accessible.

In the parish church is good glass of the fifteenth
century. But the most interesting ecclesiastical
edifice in the neighbourhood is the chapel of
Kerfons, erected in 1559, that contains, beside old
glass, a beautiful rood-screen {j'ube) of late Flam-
boyant work, with Renaissance details. These screens
were common in the Breton churches, and were thefr
great glories, but most were removed and destroyed
in the eighteenth century as standing in the way of
the congregation obtaining a full view of the hideous

146 LANNION

baroque altar-pieces then in fashion and everywhere
installed.

The road to Treguier leaves the village of Trezeni
(the Tref or homestead of S, Setna) on the left on
high ground. There is nothing of interest in the
church, but there is a holy well thereby of which a
story is told that may amuse the reader.

The surface of the water is somewhat low down,
so that a bucket has to be let down to draw up the
liquid. Over the well is a structure that has at the
back a niche, in which stood formerly the statue of
the saint in stone. But what with the friable nature
of the material, and what with knocks received from
the ascending and descending buckets, the poor saint
was so battered and broken as finally to fall from
his pedestal to the bottom of the well.

Some of the old people regretted the disappear-
ance of the image, but such as bore devotion to
S. Sezny had not the means for providing him with
a new statue. As to the peasants with money in
their pockets, they cared nothing for the old Irish
bishop who had founded their church. So for some
years the niche remained empty.

Now one Christmas Eve a farmer, named Joseph
le Saint, who was greatly addicted to the bottle, was
returning to his home beyond Trezeny from Treguier
about midnight. He was in his trap, and he took up
an acquaintance of Rospez on the way. At the branch
of the road to Trezeny from the highway stood a
public-house. Here the comrade had to descend.

" Let us have a drink together before separating,"
suggested Le Saint.

S. SEZNY 147

The other cheerfull}- acquiesced ; but, alas ! the
tavern was shut, no one was within, all had gone
to the midnight Mass.

"This is bad," said Le Saint; "and I feel a sinking
within me."

" If I were you," observed his friend, " I'd try a
draught of S. Sezny's well. I have heard say that
on Christmas Eve at the clang of the sacring bell it
is converted to the best champagne."

" I've heard that too," said Joseph. " I'll be off."

Now that night all the good folk of Trezeny were
at church, with the exception of one old woman, who
remained at home to nurse her grandson, and as she
knelt by the bed of the fevered boy she pra}'ed
fervently to the saint to cure him.

" Oh ! Monsieur Saint Sezny ! " she cried, " if I
had but a ^ew francs I would reinstate you in your
niche in the well."

When the old woman thought it was about time
for the people to be issuing from the church she
went to the door, opened it, and stood looking forth
into the night. She thought that she heard groans
and exclamations issuing from the well. She ap-
proached, and asked, " Who is there ? "

" It is I — Le Saint ! "

" The saint, come to the top of the water after
having been immersed so many years ! What a
miracle ! "

" Sacre, I am Joseph le Saint. I stooped to drink,
and went head over heels in."

"Oh! that drunken rogue! Fallen in, have you? Stay
where you are and learn the virtues of pure water."

148 LANNION

" I shall die of cold."

" That is naught to me."

" I cannot sustain myself above the surface."

" Hold ! " exclaimed the woman. " Promise me
that you will provide a new i^nage of the saint for
the niche, and one that shall cost not less than a
hundred francs, and I will pull you out. Here come
the congregation from the church to witness }'our oath."

So it came about that a new, gaudily painted saint
occupies the niche at this day.

And so gratified was S. Sezny at being thus
reinstated that he healed the grandchild, who rose
from his bed to tell the story to this day.

e:\ 5 ^oi-

CHAPTER X

LEON

The Lyonesse of romance — The people of Leon — The Land of Death —
The Ankou — Shipping the dead — Ouessant — Morlaix — Old houses
— Capture of Morlaix by the English — A brave maid^Le Taureau —
The Cordelicre — Entry of Mary Queen of Scots — Lanmeur — Story
of S. Melor — S. Pol de Leon — Paulus Aurelianus — Steals the bell
of King Mark — Arrives in Leon — Founds his monastery — Chapel
of Kreisker — The cathedral — Roscoff — Smugglers — Cauliflowers —
Landing of Mary Queen of Scots — Ruined chapel of S. Ninian —
Church of Roscoff — S.Thegonnec — Guimiliau — Landivisiau — Coast-
walk — Pontusval^A prediction — Folgoet — The Blessed Salaun —
Carved granite — Canonisation — Now a costly matter.

THE Lyonesse of Arthurian romance is the
ancient kingdom of Leon, that comprised,
roughly speaking, the arrondissement of Morlaix
and that of Brest ; a kingdom that was absorbed into
that of Domnonia in or about 530.

It is a region very original in character, and the
people in it have got a stamp of their own. They
are intensely religious, puritanical even in their
gravity and abhorrence of dancing, in which they
indulge alone at weddings. They are sedate and
solemn, with a Spanish dignity about them. Their
costumes are all black, with the exception of those

149

I50 LEON

of the Pagani, who indulge in gaudy colours, and who
occupy the coast from Plouescat to Lannilis.

This is the part which is indeed la Bretagne breton-
nante, where Death reigns in undivided supremacy
and tinctures all existence, every amusement, every
occupation ; where are the most monumental Cal-
varies and the most palatial ossuaries.

At Kermaria, near Plouha in C6tes-du-Nord, as
already said, is a life-sized Dance of Death ; forty
personages are represented being jigged into their
graves by the King of Terrors. Now here, in Leon,
Death stalks, he does not dance, and all men follow
him sedately with their eyes lowered and with folded
hands through life to the grave of which they never
lose the thought.

At La Roche is an ossuary with on it a skeleton
armed with a dart levelling at every trade which is
represented below, and with the inscription issuing
from his mouth, " II vous tue tous."

Death is personified in Lower Brittany by the
Ankou^ who travels about the country in a cart
picking up souls. At night a wain is heard coming
along the road with a creaking axle. It halts at
a door, and that is the summons. A spirit passes,
and the Ankou moves on. A curious story is told
by an old Byzantine writer concerning the western
coast of Finistere. He says that at night a boat lies
attached to the shore, and the boatman hears himself
called. He goes forth and takes his oars. Then he
hears a stirring, and gradually his bark becomes laden,
but nothing is seen. When the boat is so charged
that it nearly touches the water's edge he puts forth

MORLAIX 151

and rows to one of the islands off the coast, whereat
those who are invisible step forth, and his vessel
is lightened ; and so he returns to the mainland.
He has ferried the dead across to the islands in
the stormy Atlantic which are the permanent habita-
tion of the souls of the departed.

The great Islands of the Dead were doubtless
Ouessant, and Sein, off the Bay des Trepasses in
Cornouaille. This latter island in pagan times was
occupied by nine virgins who were consulted as
oracles, and who were credited with the power of rais-
ing or laying storms. None might consult them who
were not sailors. Probably with them, as with another
college of priestesses in an island in the Loire, it was
an obligation on a certain day to pull down and
reconstruct the roof of their temple. If by chance
one of them let fall any sacred object, any portion
of the thatch, her companions rushed on her with
hideous cries, tore her limb from limb, and then
scattered her blood-stained flesh about the island.

Ouessant was almost certainly also haunted by
prophetesses who were consulted ; there are remains
there of an enclosure that is called the Temple of the
Pagans.

Morlaix, the capital town of Finistere, possesses
little of beauty or interest to attract the visitor,
except some old houses. The only church that
deserves notice is the little S. Melaine, with its fine
spire, but it is dwarfed by the viaduct which strides
past it, crossing the valley.

The old houses are built, something like ancient
English inns, about a small quadrangle lighted from

152 LEON

above, and with balconies communicating with the
several rooms opening out of them. The staircases
to these balconies are usually richly carved.

"If bitten, bite again " is the motto of the town,
and it has often had teeth fastened in it and has
returned the bite.

During the War of Succession it underwent fright-
ful calamities. The Duke of Montfort having obtained
possession of it by a trick, hanged fifty of its principal
citizens, who had been placed in his hands as hostages.
This so exasperated the townsfolk that they rose
against the garrison of five hundred men, and put
all to the sword.

In 1522 Henry VIII. of England despatched a fleet
to Morlaix. A traitor in the town sent a message to
the English admiral with instructions how he might
surprise the place. The English entered and set
it on fire and returned laden with spoils to their
vessels. Six or seven hundred, however, remained
behind, intent on plunder, or overcome with wine,
and fell victims to their rapacity. On this occasion
a servant girl in a house in the Grande Rue, who
was left alone there, did good service against the
enemy. In the entrance was a trap to the cellar ;
this she raised, and by lifting a sluice flooded the
vaults. The English soldiers, mad with drink,
crowded in at the door and fell headlong into the
cellar. It is said that some seventy were drowned
before those pressing on from behind became aware
of the danger. When this was discovered the soldiers
pursued the girl upstairs to the attics, and when they
found her threw her out of a window on the pikes
of their fellows below.

A TRAGIC STORY 153

As a protection to the town against the EngHsh,
the fortress called Le Tauremt was erected on a rock
before the harbour.

From this port sailed the Cordeliere in 1513, a
privateer under the command of Captain Primaguet,
who did vast damage to English commerce, till one
day she was engaged by the Regent and set on
fire ; thereupon Primaguet, knowing that he could
not save his vessel, grappled the English frigate, set
it on fire, and both blew up together.

It was at Morlaix in 1548 that Mary Queen of
Scots, after disembarking at Roscoff, arrived to
marry the Dauphin, afterwards P'rancis II. The
Seigneur de Rohan, at the head of the Breton
nobility, received her. After a Te Demn, sung in
the church of Notre Dame, the royal procession
was about to pass over the drawbridge into the
castle, when it gave way under the weight of the
horsemen upon it. The Scotch guard at once
shouted, " Treason ! treason ! " and drew their swords.
But the Seigneur de Rohan, who walked beside the
Queen, turned and said, " Jamais Breton ne fit
trahison," and the tumult was allayed.

To the east of Morlaix is Lanmeur {Lann-inaw)',
the Great Church), where there is a tenth- century
crypt that contains a holy well under the church.
The crypt was where, in still earlier times than
its construction, was the tomb of a prince of
Cornouaille called Melor, whose story is sufficiently
tragic. He was son of Meliau, who reigned over
that portion of Brittany called Cornouaille from
530 to 537, when he was treacherously stabbed to

154 LEON

the heart by his brother Rivold, who coveted his
place. No sooner was Meliau dead than Rivold
seized on his son Melor and cut off his right hand
and left foot. The object of this mutilation was
to incapacitate him from reigning, as by Celtic law
no one with any bodily blemish was qualified to
be eligible for the sovereignty.

Melor took refuge at Ouimper, where some cunning
man made for him artificial members to take the
place of those which had been amputated. Legend
has it that the hand was of silver and the foot of
bronze.

A great amount of sympathy was aroused for the
unfortunate victim of Rivold's ambition, and the
usurper became alarmed, and deemed it advisable
to have the lad put out of the way entirely. He
consulted with Cerealtan, who had been Melor's
foster-father, and one against whom the boy enter-
tained no suspicions, and bribed him to kill the
young prince.

Cerealtan confided his project to his wife, who,
horror-struck, fled with Melor to Beuzit and placed
him under the protection of Conmore, Count of
Poher and usurper of Domnonia, who had married
the sister of Meliau.

Cerealtan, eager after the promised reward, visited
his foster-son there, and disarmed his fears and those
of the aunt, so that he and his son Justan were
put to sleep in the same room with Melor.

During the night the wretched man killed the
prince, cut off his head, and with his son escaped
by the window. The latter, however, missed his

PAUL AND THE BELL 155

hold and fell and broke his neck. Cerealtan went
off with his prize, laid it at the feet of Rivold, and
demanded his reward. "I promised you," said the
usurper, "as much land as you could see from the
summit of the nearest hill. Good ! you shall have
it, but first of all I will put out your eyes."

The body of the murdered prince was laid at
Lanmeur, but in the time of the incursion of the
Northmen was carried by some emigrant Bretons
to England and laid at Amesbury. Several churches
in the west of England have been dedicated to the
boy-martyr of Brittany. Now only a statue repre-
senting him remains in the crypt in Lanmeur.

If Morlaix be an uninteresting place, this can
in no way be said of S. Pol de Leon, which is
reached by a branch line.

S. Pol, or Paulus Aurelianus, was a native of
Glamorganshire. He was born about the year 480,
and was summoned by a prince of the name of Mark
to regulate the religious affairs of his little realm.
Where this was we do not well know ; whether this
was the Mark, husband of the fair and frail Yseult,
or another we are not informed. However, Paul had
a quarrel with the king over a hammered bronze bell,
which Paul wanted and the king would not surrender.
Paul stole the treasured bell and made a bolt with
it to Brittany. With him were not only twelve
priests of his community, but also twelve laymen of
noble birth, with their wives and families, all Paul's
kinsmen, and a large number of serfs and retainers.
They landed at first in the island of Ouessant, where
Lampaul {Lann-Paul) still bears his name, but such

156 LEON

a storm-swept island did not suit him, and after
a few months' tarry there he crossed to the mainland,
and a good many of his lay attendants settled and
founded pious in the neighbourhood of Lampaul
and Ploudalmezeau. There he spent two years ;
after that he went to the Isle of Brehat to visit
the British chieftain Gwithur from his own part
of South Wales, who had established himself as
prince over Leon.

He found him, very aged, reading a book of the
gospels. The old Welshman welcomed him with
enthusiasm, and entreated him to give ecclesiastical
organisation to the large colony that had settled
in Lyonesse, and recommended him to found a
lann and make his headquarters among the ruins
of an old Gallo-Roman town where now stands
S. Pol de Leon. Paul visited the spot and found
that a good part of the ancient walls was standing,
but within the enclosure all was overgrown with
brambles. He set vigorously to work to clear the
ground, and there constituted the monastery which
was the centre whence radiated his missions through-
out the country. Here he was visited by Judual,
whom S. Samson had placed on the throne of Dom-
nonia, in 555. Paul was then very aged. The pious
prince gave him jurisdiction over a considerable tract
of country — the harbour of Penpaul, and the parishes
of Roscoff, Santec, and Tregoudern, which thence-
forth composed the minster, or sanctuary of S. Paul.

The old Welsh apostle lived to a great age, and
was so thin and wasted that it was said that the
sunlight passed through his hand as if it were

CHAPEL OF KREISKER 157

dull glass. He died in 572. The bell he carried off
with him from King Mark is still preserved in the
cathedral, and is reputed to be miraculous.*

The cathedral is of various dates. A part of the
transept belongs to the twelfth century ; the two
towers and spires to the thirteenth, as also the nave ;
but the western facade, the central spire, and the
choir are Flamboyant work, and were erected between
143 1 and 1450. In the choir are some five stalls, of
the date 15 12.

The chapel of Kreisker has a fine tower and spire
of the fourteenth century. It is thought to be the
finest in Brittany. But it is topheavy ; the eight four-
staged turrets surmounted by spirelets that surround
the central spire are too cumbrous for the tower that
sustains them.

The chapel marks a spot granted to S. Kirec by
a lady whom he had reproved for washing clothes
on a Sunday, and who fell ill shortly after, and
supposed it was due to her disregard of the saint's
rebuke. The chapel has a beautiful north porch,
with pigs trotting round in the mouldings of the
archway. The internal arrangement is peculiar,
the returned stalls being in the nave, a use by no
means uncommon in Spain, but in England only
seen in Westminster Abbey, and in France equally
rare. The east window contains poor modern glass

* In the legend it is said that Paul asked for the bell, but was refused
it, and therefore in a huff deserted his charge of the people in the
principality of King Mark, and that when he reached Brittany a fish
was brought to table with the bell in its stomach. This is nonsense.
That S. Paul ran away with it seems to be the truth of the matter.
The bell is almost certainly of the sixth century.

158 LEON

that reproduces older figures of Breton saints. The
windows of the church are all of the Flamboyant
period, but at its decline when a revulsion occurred
against the feebleness of leaf-like tracery, and there
was a recurrence to Geometrical design.

The old cathedral of S. Pol has a western facade
and towers of First Pointed. The nave is Second
Pointed, with pillars and arcades of remarkable
beauty. The transepts have eastern aisles, and that
to the south possesses a fine Second Pointed (Geo-
metrical) window with a rose.

The apse and choir are Flamboyant, and the latter
has double aisles on both sides. On the north side
is the chapel of S. Paul of Leon, where are preserved
his head, a hand, and his bell.

Outside at the west end is a gallery above the
porch, from which the people were blessed at the
" pardon," and on the south side of the transept is
another gallery from v/hich excommunications were
pronounced.

The cemetery possesses several ossuaries of no
particular interest, and a chapel, formerly the church
of S. Pierre, a good example of an unpretentious
Second Pointed village church ; but it has a bar-
barous Louis XIV. west tower.

From S. Pol an easy walk may be taken to Roscoff,
and a ruined allee coiiverte and a dolmen visited on
the way where the high-road crosses the line.

Roscoff was the great seat of contraband trade
during the European war. Smugglers from England
came over in large numbers laden with sugar, spices,
coffee, into the creeks of Brittany, and unloaded

ROSCOFF 159

secretly ; then, when they had discharged their
burdens, went openly to Roscoff to take in fresh
cargoes of spirits. These were always supplied in
kegs such as one man could carry, and each keg
was furnished with ropes round it with loops, so that
the arms might be slipped through these latter, and
the little cask be carried on the back.

Now the entire district round is given up to the
production of cauliflowers and broccoli, which are
shipped to England and Scotland.

It was here that Mary Stuart landed when on her
way to be married to the Dauphin, and she had a
chapel erected on the spot and dedicated to S. Ninian,
the apostle of the Scotch. The roof was torn off at
the Revolution, and the chapel is now a ruin, be-
plastered with advertisements of " Byrrh," " Magge,"
of sewing machines and bicycles.

The parish church is late Flamboyant, with a
western tower and porch Renaissance, and very fine.
There are curious carvings of ships on the walls of
the church, and the tower is furnished with stone
culverins that serve as gargoyles.

There are two ossuaries in the churchyard ; one
of the seventeenth century is richly ornamented. I
happened to visit the church in January, when a
side chapel was converted into a creche. The wise
men led by the star were duly represented, along
with camels and horses, approaching the stable of
Bethlehem, but the procession of visitors to the
manger wound up with figures of Breton peasants
in costume, and a French soldier in his baggy red
trousers and blue coat and militar}' cap. Some

i6o LEON

beautiful alabaster sculpture representing the sacred
story, and of the fourteenth century, admirably pre-
served, is kept under glass in the church. It formerly
belonged to an altar-piece.

The whole of the coast is here much indented ; the
tide falls 27 feet, and leaves vast tracts of sand, and
sea and sands bristle with rocks. The island of Batz
protects the little harbour of Roscoff from the north-
westerly gales.

There are several very remarkable churches that
may be visited without much difficulty from the line
between Morlaix and Landernau.

S. Thegonnec possesses a very interesting collec-
tion of structures. The church was rebuilt early in
the seventeenth century, and has the characteristic
qualities of the granite Breton churches of the period.
In addition there is an ossuary of 1581, adjoining a
Calvaire, and a sort of triumphal arch. The whole
group is most quaint and picturesque.

But Guimiliau is quite as interesting; the triumphal
arch and the ossuary are not equal to those of
S. Thegonnec, but the Calvaire is finer. It dates
from 1 58 1-8, and on it is represented the whole of
the gospel story in a crowd of rude but vigorously
executed statuettes. A stair leads to the platform
on which is the cross.

Landivisiau unhappily has a modern church, but
the magnificent portal of 1554 has been preserved
as well as the tower of 1590, and the ossuary with
quaint caryatides supporting a richly designed and
sculptured cornice. The old graveyard around the
church has ceased to be used, and the ossuary has

ENGLAND'S DOWNFALL i6i

been transported to the new cemetery. At a distance
of six miles is Lambader, with a chapel of the
fifteenth century, and a wonderfully rich rood-screen
of oak, set up in 148 1.

Those who can cycle, or are good walkers, should
m.ake for Lannilis from S. Pol de Leon. There are
branch lines from the main artery of traffic to Brest,
that lead to Lannilis and to Plouneour-Trez ; but
the walker or cyclist can start from S. Pol, take
Plouescat on his way, then go to Lesneven and see
the chapel of Folgoet, and thence by a good road
make for Lannilis. By this course he will see the
country of the Pagani, formerly of evil repute as in-
veterate wreckers, and visit some interesting churches.

Pontusval is the extreme northern point reached
by the branch line from Landerneau. Here is the
crag of Castel Lonel. It is amusing at this time
to read the lucubrations of the traveller Cambry, who
was here in 1795, and published his account of Finis-
tere in 1799. He died in 1807.

" At this spot," he says, " one is not twenty
leagues from Plymouth. I pictured to myself the
agitation produced in England by our Revolution,
her manufactures annihilated, her military power
reduced to naught. It is impossible that the con-
vulsive condition of the country should continue.
This generation will inevitably see the immense
scaffolding on which the power of England has been
reared fall in ruin to the ground. The ferment of
revolt which has been repressed during a hundred
and fifty years, ever active, always smouldering, must
burst forth at last, and the convulsions of France

i62 LEON

will assume in England proportions far greater, will
rage with mightier fury than with us. England's
credit, resting on no solid basis, will be dissipated ;
her imports, necessary to her existence, will fail.
Pride will have provoked her downfall. Her manor-
houses will become a prey to flames, her estates will
be parcelled up, her fugitives will seek on foreign
soil a hospitality that will be refused them. Alas !
how the direful passion for revenge reigns in the
heart of man and makes him look forward to such
a catastrophe. Does he consider what the result
of the accomplishment of his hopes will entail ?
Towns destroyed, mothers with their children starv-
ing, the landowner wandering homeless in forests,
his brother rejecting his appeal and delivering him
over to the executioner ; the soldier stains his sword
with crime, the magistrate loses all authority, and
the court of justice having no longer credit, will mul-
tiply its efforts to compel submission, regardless of
all morality. Barbarous England ! this is the con-
dition of affairs awaiting you, if you do not expel the
abominable spirit which urges you to bathe land and
sea with blood in quest of empty glory and imaginary
omnipotence."

Amusing reading this in 1901 !

At Kerjean is one of the finest castles in Brittany,
in which two distinct styles are happily to be seen
side by side, the Norman type of fortress and the
chateau of the reign of Henry IV.

The church of Notre Dame de Folgoet is one of
the richest examples of late Gothic architecture in
Brittany. It owes its origin to a popular cult that

THE BLESSED SALAUN 163

has sprung up about the tomb of an idiot, Salaun,
who lived in the fourteenth century. When he was
aHve nothing was thought of him ; he was so imbecile
that all he could say was " Ave Maria," which he
repeated like a parrot. He was quite harmless, and
subsisted on charity, and had his habitation in a
wood. When he died he was buried in the little
churchyard, and because a lily sprang up over his
grave it was concluded that he must have been a
saint, and imaginative persons pretended to see in
the spots on the petals something that might be
taken to stand for " Ave Maria."

Just the same story is told of a chapel near Inns-
bruck. Then the place became a resort of pilgrims,
and money flowed in. Miracles were supposed to
have been wrought at the intercession of the "Fool of
the Woods," and saints become fashionable as well as
bonnets. There was a run on Folgoet, and the noble
church was erected and consecrated in 1419. It was
made collegiate by Duke Jean V. in 1423, To this
day it is the object of one of the most celebrated
pilgrimages of Brittany.

The fountain of the Blessed Salaun flows from
under the high altar, and is received in a basin
outside the east end. The church contains some
magnificent and exquisitely delicate carved work in
granite.

It is remarkable that in Brittany, as at Limoges,
the use of granite as a material for sculpture never
failed. There is Romanesque work in that stone, and
it was employed throughout the Middle Ages. This
was not the case in England in granitic districts ;

i64 LEON

there — after the very early crosses with interlaced
work on them — granite was totally discarded, and
it was not till the middle of the fifteenth century
that it again came in vogue, and in the counties of
Devon and Cornwall was thenceforth the favourite
material for pillars, windows, fireplaces, and gateways.

This was due to the much finer texture of the
Brittany and Limousin granites and the absence of
great pieces of felspar.

To return to the Blessed Salaun. His is one of
the many instances of the making of saints by the
popular voice. We have had another in that of
Charles of Blois, and another even grosser in that
of Solomon, King of Brittany.

Canonisation is actually a comparatively modern
regulation by Rome of a custom that was usual
everywhere. Very generally the common people
made up their minds as to who was a saint. S. Martin
of Tours found that his people had elevated into a
martyr a highway robber, who had been executed
for his crimes, and were invoking him, and recording
miraculous cures wrought at his tomb. Guibert of
Nogent tells us of a case that came under his own
notice of a drunken man who was drowned, and was
at once, by popular acclamation, declared to be a
saint. In every place, said Guibert, old women
canonise new saints by inventing all sorts of gossiping
stories about them. In Iceland the parliament of the
island, by vote, decided that their deceased bishop,
Thorlak, should be esteemed a saint, and be com-
memorated in the Church as such. The earliest in-
stance of formal canonisation that can be found is

MONEY AND CANONISATION 165

that of Ulric of Augsburg, whom the council assem-
bled at the Lateran in 993 pronounced to be a saint.
Already, in the Synod of Aix-la-Chapelle in 789, the
veneration of fictitious martyrs had been forbidden ;
and in those of Frankfort in 794, and Aix in or
about 803, the introduction of the cult of unauthorised
saints had been condemned.

It was clearly advisable that some order should be
introduced into the system, and that canonisation
should not be left to old women and weak-minded
and ignorant peasants. The bishops took the matter
into their own hands, and each bishop decided who
should be commemorated in his diocese. Then the
finger of Rome was introduced into the pie, but it
was not till 1634 that the Pope reserved to himself
the exclusive right to pronounce judgment on who
were to receive public veneration. Thenceforth it
became largely a matter of money, and only wealthy
families or communities can afford the fees insepar-
ably connected with a canonisation. " God deliver
us from another saint in our family," said Prince
Borgia, after the beatification of the Princess had
been brought about. " Another will ruin us com-
pletely."

CHAPTER XI
BREST

A modern town — Travelling in Brittany— A visitor to the Exposition
of 1900 — Plougastel — Marriages there — The costume — The Calvaire
— Dances — The Barzas breiz of De la Villemarque — How he was
taken in — The biniou — The ping-pong — Breton music — Pardons —
Dirinon — S. Nonna — Rumengol — Daoulas — Landevennec — S.
Winwaloe — Forged charters — Strawberries — An anti-British grocer
— Churches on the Elorn — Neventer and Rioc.

BREST is a town in itself of no interest except
to such as are curious to see life in a seaport,
and to observe the ironclads in the harbour. The
beautiful bay is an inland salt-water lake with three
branches, and communicates with the ocean by the
Goulet. It is about twelve miles long by four wide.
The entrance is illumined by four lighthouses, and
defended by numerous forts. The dockyard can only
be visited if a permit has been granted, and an
Englishman will find some difficulty in obtaining
one. Moreover, such sights can be inspected at
home.

The only advantage Brest offers to a visitor is that
it serves as a starting-point for excursions, and he is
sure there of comfortable inns. But for the matter
of that, one may be sure of finding cleanliness and

166

A GOOD STORY 167

good food in every village inn in Brittany, and if the
sanitary arrangements are not " up to date," they are
incomparably superior to those in the south of
France. The innkeepers are obliging, and eager to
do their best ; and where the traveller is courteous
and willing to be pleased, he is sure of finding hearty
reciprocation. The Bretons are an honest and kindly
folk, and it is only at the fashionable watering-places
that they are losing their simplicity, and becoming
extortionate in their charges.

A good story was told in 1900 of a Breton well-
to-do farmer who visited the Paris Exposition, that
illustrates the childlike trust and simplicity of the
people. The story is true. The man came to Paris
from near Brest, and his name is well known, nor is
the story likely to be forgotten by his fellow-villagers.
Fired with ambition to see the world-fair, this good
man, whom we will call Salaun, put all the money he
could spare into his purse, assumed his gala clothes,
and took a return ticket from Brest to Paris,

On his arrival at the metropolis he looked about
him in bewilderment, when, noticing a cure in his
cassock at the station, he approached him, and asked
counsel.

" Now see here ! " said the priest, " you are a
stranger, and the hotels in Paris are extortionate in
their charges. Six francs for a bed. I know a quiet
little tavern where you can put up for one franc. I
am going there. Come with me."

A priest is the natural friend and adviser of the
Breton peasant, and receives absolute trust. So
Salaun followed his new acquaintance.

i68 BREST

Said the cure to him, " I, as a country parson, can
go for nothing into all the side-shows, and unless
you see them you see naught. Take my advice.
I have an old and shabby cassock which I will lend
you. Divest yourself of your best suit and assume
the clerical habit. Your Breton wide-awake will
pass muster. Then leave all your money behind in
your valise, for the Exposition swarms with the most
dexterous pickpockets."

Salaun gladly accepted the offer, and went forth
habited as a poor village cure. His friend passed
him into the exhibition building and then dis-
appeared. The peasant was not surprised, as the
throng was great, but he was disconcerted at find-
ing that his habit did not free him to the side-shows.

After several hours spent in the building, Salaun
became ravenously hungry, but could get no refresh-
ment, as his purse was left at his lodgings. At last,
unable to endure longer, he left the Exhibition and
returned to the tavern, to find that his valise and
money and best suit had all disappeared. The
taverner stormed for payment, and the peasant had
to surrender his watch to defray his night's lodgings
and supper. Happily he still retained his return
ticket, and with that he took the train for Brest.

He reached his home late at night, glad to steal
through the village in his cassock unobserved. On
reaching the farm he hammered at his door. The
old wife was in bed. " Aha ! " said she, " thieves are
here. They know that my good man is in Paris,
and think to rob the house ; I'll not let them in,"
and she pulled the sheets over her ears.

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A FISHER BOY

PLOUGASTEL 169

The more the hammering continued the more
resolute was she not to open. At last her husband
desisted, and went to the cowhouse for a little rest.
But at dawn he was again knocking at the door.
Then the woman peered forth and saw, as she sup-
posed, the cure seeking admission. " Scandalous ! "
she exclaimed. " Who would have thought it of his
reverence ? What things men are ! " Then she
shouted, " Monsieur le Cure, go away ; there is no
no one dying in here."

"But," replied the man, "there is one dying outside
— of hunger."

Then only did she recognise her husband's voice.
It goes without saying that Salaun has had a bad
time since.

One of the first and most interesting visits should
be made to Plougastel, that occupies a tongue of land
between the estuaries of the Elorn and the Faou
rivers. Here the people cling tenaciously to their
ancient customs and costumes. The latter are, how-
ever, only to be seen in their full beauty and richness
on gala days.

At Plougastel all the marriages in the year take
place on one day in the year, in the week of the
Epiphany. In 1899 forty-six couples were then
united ; in 1901 I was present at the wedding of
twenty couples. In Lower Brittany it is usual to
have the marriages in the winter, so as not to inter-
fere with the work of the fields and the fisheries.

On the occasion of my visit the weddings took place
at nine o'clock in the morning. Before dawn carts
and traps of all sorts arrived from the country about,

I70 BREST

bringing kinsmen and friends, and the street swarmed
with men and women in their gayest costume. The
men wear violet or blue jackets and three waistcoats,
the uppermost of green, and fastened by a single
button. About their throats are gay silk kerchiefs
of mingled green and violet. Sashes are bound
around their waists. They wear black trousers in
winter, but white in summer, so tight about the
ankles that it is a wonder how they get into them.
On their heads are black wide-awakes, with long
black velvet streamers falling down their backs.

The women wear white coifs that fall over their
shoulders. Their bodices are richly embroidered in
silk, and over their skirts they have broad blue
aprons. Occasionally the skirts are blue. About their
waists are broad ribbons of interwoven silk in many
colours over gold-foil. Their stockings have clocks
and heels of colour.

All the couples are ranged at the altar-rail, the
bridegrooms being led up by the hand by their best
men, and the brides by their fathers. A tall taper
is affixed burning before each couple. After the
simple benediction of their clasped hands, the Veni
Creator is sung and the Mass of the Holy Ghost is
said.

Bride and bridegroom do not leave the church
together ; the men depart first and then all the women
ripple down the flight of steps from the porch, with
their white coifs and glittering ribbons composing a
picture of admirable beauty and quaintness.

The church itself is modern and passable, but
possesses outside a Calvaire of carved granite and dark

PLOUGASTEL 171

Kersanton stone, crowded with figures that represent
in groups the gospel story.

All the day feasting goes on in the houses of those
who have been married, and, indeed, this feasting
continues for nearly a week. Everyone is welcome,
and the poor and the beggars receive what they want.
The final meal is that of the cures, when the young
people are for the most part absent, and the elders
and the parsons close the week of jollification by
soberly hob-nobbing together.

In Northern Finistere there is not any dancing
except at weddings, and then not much.

" Le clerge nous domine," said the host to me ;
" quand meme, on fait des betises."

Human nature is the same everywhere, but I doubt
if anywhere it is more disciplined and self-restrained
than in Catholic Brittany. One has but to look at
the pure faces of the girls, and note how respectable
all the marriages are, not to draw a painful and
humiliating contrast with those of the same blood
elsewhere.

A tree is known by its fruit, but there are fruits
of different kinds. If the fruit of Christianity be
cultivated intelligence, then undoubtedly Noncon-
formist Wales and Cornwall are more prolific than
Catholic Brittany ; but if it be innocence and single-
ness of mind, and a piety that pervades and governs
the whole life, then the positions are reversed.

The dances at Plougastel are x^-dX\-\\y gavottes, and
there is no traditional country dance in use. But
at a noce one has a chance of hearing some of the
guests sing some ancient souniou or gwerziou. The

172 BREST

former is the lyric or love song and the latter a
ballad. And here I may say a few words about the
national poetry of the Bretons.

In 1837 M. de la Villemarque published his
Bai'sas breiz, a collection that purported to be made
from the lips of the Bretons of their traditional
ballads, historical, legendary, and mythological.

The Barzas breiz was hailed with enthusiasm in
France and was crowned by the Academy.

So years passed, and others, notably M. Luzel,
began to collect. Then he found that what he
gathered was not quite the same as what De la
Villemarque had given to the world, and that of
some of the most interesting historical and poetical
pieces not a trace could anywhere be discovered.

De la Villemarque was an amiable and well-
intentioned man, and none suspected him of forgery.
But what had taken place was this. He had largely
" restored " ballads of which he had picked up mere
fragments ; he did this without indicating where his
restorations came in. Worse than this, he had
accepted a budget of contributions forwarded to
him by at least one friend whom he trusted, and who
had manufactured the pieces and passed them off
on the uncritical and unsuspicious De la Villemarque
as genuine antiques.

He was not satisfied without giving to those pieces
which he himself heard a fictitious antiquity. For
instance, the Bretons have a song strictly like our
familiar —

" Sing a song of One O I
What shall I sing you ? "

BRETON BALLADS 173

Now, De la Villemarque touched it up, adding lines of
his own to convert it into a Druidic lesson imparting
deep mysteries to a pupil. Not a word of this occurs
in the genuine ballad.

The Barsas breiz, after having hoaxed the Academy
and pretty nearly every English traveller in Brittany,
who flies to it to extract padding for his volume
of travels, has fallen into disrepute ; and although
the learned are unwilling to say hard words of a
man who sought to popularise the ballads of his
native land and dealt with them in a stupid manner,
they can trust to the genuineness of no single piece
in the collection unless its counterpart can be found
in the volumes of M. Luzel.

De la Villemarque should have named his author-
ities and have indicated what alterations he had
introduced into the text, and should have left copies
of the ballads as he received them. But he had
the example of such men as Bishop Percy and
Sir Walter Scott before him, and he followed their
traces. He has been termed the Macpherson of
Brittany.

The musical instrument in general use among the
Bretons is the binion, a bagpipe, but differing in some
particulars from the Scottish national instrument.
The bagpipe is the most ancient wind instrument
in Europe. It was formerly very widely diffused.
At Aruns in the Pyrenees is a white marble font,
on which is represented in carving a marriage feast
of the fifteenth century, and a man is figured thereon
playing a bagpipe to the dancers. So also at Mary-
church in Devon a bagpipe player is represented ;

174 BREST

so also on a bench-end of the fifteenth century at
Altarnon in Cornwall. The Breton biniou differs
mainly from the Scottish national instrument in
this, that the former is played by two persons,
one with the chanter or melody pipe, the other
has a bag with one drone, and a smaller pipe which
he fingers to vary the accompaniment.

The Highland bagpipe is played by one person.
It has a chanter for the melody, and there are three
drones which lie over the shoulder ; these produce
the note A, the long one an octave lower than
the other two.

There are but two dances that can be considered
as national in Brittany, the gavotte and the ping-pong.
The latter consists in the partners holding each other
by the little finger in walking up the line of the
contre-danse till they find a gap, whereupon they
whirl each other round three times, and then saunter
forward finger-locked again. It is not a picturesque
and pretty dance as is the gavotte.

Breton music is not of a good quality ; the popular
melodies are poor, miserably so, as compared with
those of Ireland, Wales, and Cornwall. And the
ecclesiastical music in the churches is rendered badly
by harsh voices. Possibly the dismal biniou has
militated against good music.

There are several " pardons " at Plougastel at the
chapels that are peppered about the peninsula ; but
perhaps the best is that on Midsummer Eve, cele-
brated with bonfires, and succeeded by the religious
observances of the morrow.

At four miles from Plougastel is Dirinon, a church

DIRINON 175

with a spire of 1593. But the place is specially inter-
esting because of its association with S. David of
Wales and his mother.

Nonna was the daughter of an Irish chief who had
settled himself in the headland of Pembrokeshire,
where is now S. David's. He sent his daughter to
the school started by S. Mancen, or Mawgan, at
Tygwyn, or the White House, close to the harbour.
One day w^hen she was out for a walk Cedig, the
Welsh prince, son of Ceredig who had driven the
Irish out of what is now called after him Cardigan-
shire, saw her and carried her off. The result was
that she gave fair promise of becoming a mother,
and retired to a cottage on the cliffs, of which the
contemporary walls remain to this day with a super-
structure of mediaeval work in stone and mortar.
Here she became the mother of S. David,

Meanwhile her sister Gwen had been married to
Solomon, King or Duke of Cornwall. In later years
Nonna went to see her sister, and was granted a large
tract of land on the moors, where she founded a
college for girls at Altarnon. Why she left this we
know not, but probably she was caught by the wave
of desire for emigration which passed over the
British at the time, pressed by the Saxons further
and ever further west. She then settled here, and
here she died. Her tomb is shown in the chapel that
bears her name, but the tomb itself is a work of the
fifteenth century. Her bones are, however, con-
tained now in a reliquary of enamel -work of an
earlier date.

Her holy well is much resorted to still ; it is a

176 BREST

large tank of water enclosed by walls, and with
benches about it. The spring itself is under an
arched structure of 1623, and in it is a statue of the
mother of David. The water flows into three oval
basins in succession, and never fails.

About a mile off is also the fountain of S. David ;
the building enclosing it is similar to that of Nonna,
and contains a statue of the patron saint of Wales of
the fourteenth century. There exists a remarkable
Breton miracle-play representing the story of Nonna
with a frankness very startling. It was enacted by the
peasants at their "pardon" till the Revolution, and has
not been performed since. God the Father is intro-
duced, and acts and talks, and in other particulars it
is objectionable ; it would not be possible to revive
the performance unless the text were expurgated.

Rumengol should be visited on Trinity Sunday,
when is its most famous " pardon " that attracts pil-
grims from all parts of Finistere. The church was
built in 1536, and is surrounded by ancient pines.
Near it is a holy well, the water of which is supposed
to cure all manner of complaints, external and in-
ternal.

Daoulas is interesting to the architect on account
of the remains of a monastery founded there in the
sixth century. The church contains much Romanesque
work, and there is a very fine roofless cloister. The
old porch of the church has been carried off to the
cemetery, where is a fine old cross. The ossuary
dates from 1589. The chapel of S. Anne is of the
sixteenth century, and is worth notice.

Landevennec was once a famous monastery founded

ROOD-SCREEN', LA KOCHE. XVIIH CENT.

LANDEVENNEC

by King Grallo and S. Winwaloe. The latter was
son of Fragan, whom we have seen settled near
S. Brieuc. Winwaloe with a small party of monks
settled first of all at Tibidy, a little isle at the mouth
of the Faou River. But the place was too strait for
him, and one day when the tide was unusually low
he called his monks to him and bade them hold
hands and follow him.

He went forward with his staff, and with the other
hand holding one of his brethren, and thus in a chain
they made their way across the precarious sand and
mud to the mainland.

Then he persuaded King Grallo to give him
Landevennec, on a long strip of land that forces
the Chateaulin River to make an abrupt deflexion.

The situation was sheltered, and the writer of the
Life of Winwaloe waxes eloquent on its beauty and
the sweetness of the climate.

Landevennec became in turn a rich foundation,
and unfortunately by unscrupulous means, for the
monks in the twelfth century deliberately forged a
set of title-deeds to a good many manors that they
coveted, and on the strength of these exercised
jurisdiction, with rights of life and death, over a
considerable district. The cartulary of Landevennec
is in existence, and no manner of doubt exists that
something like half of the charters therein are
fraudulent compositions.

Landevennec is now a ruin. King Grallo was buried
in it, but his tomb can no more be distinguished.
The ruins are in private grounds, but permission is
readily accorded to visitors to inspect them.

178 BREST

The whole of this district, as well as the pro-
montory of Plougastel, is a great fruit - growing
region. Strawberries ripen there a month before they
do in Kent, and in May and June steamers laden
with green peas and strawberries leave daily for
England.

During the strong anti-English fit that took hold
of the French after Fashoda and the Dreyfus affair,
a grocer distinguished himself by his loud -spoken
and savage abuse of the British, " Sacres marchands
de confitures ! " he called them.

" But why marchands de confitures?" he was asked.

" Why ! because they make the jams that they
send to us. And they have no sugar themselves,
and no fruit. Sacre ! they take our sugar and our
fruit, and they make us buy their jams."

The churches in the valley of the Elorn, S.
Thegonnec, Guimiliau, Lampaul, La Roche, and
Landerneau, are well deserving of a visit. During
the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries
Brittany was rich, especially Lower Brittany, as vast
flocks of sheep were reared on the moors, and
enormous quantities of wool were exported. The
result of this wealth is seen in the lavishness with
which the churches were built and decorated, and
supplied with triumphal arches. Calvaries, and ossu-
aries. Of the magnificent rood-screens then set up
but few remain, but one of the finest in purest
Renaissance work is at La Roche.

La Roche is a most picturesque spot : a rock of
white quartz rises abruptly from the valley, and is
crowned by a castle. Near this is the village with

CAL\"AIKE, OUI.MII.IAU. 1581

A CRUEL CUSTOM 179

its church and ossuary. A curious story is associated
with La Roche.

Among the early settlers from Wales was one
Neventer, who established his ploii on the north side
of the river, where is now Plouneventer. One day
he was walking by the river, then called the
Dournoun, when he saw a man struggling in the
water. He at once proceeded to rescue him, and
when he had got the fellow out he learned that his
name was Elorn, and that he had his castle on the
summit of the rock. He had attempted suicide, and
the reason was this : He belonged to the original
population, the dolmen-builders. Now, everywhere
among that people a hideous custom existed, that
annually in each tribe a human sacrifice should be
offered. A youth or a woman was put to slow
torture, and then torn to pieces, and bits of the
flesh were distributed throughout the clan, and these
gobbets of human flesh were buried in the fields
destined to grow corn — the idea being that this
horrible rite ensured a good harvest. To determine
the annual victim lots were cast, and this year the lot
had fallen on Elorn, who was held to be bound to
deliver over his son — his only child — to be thus sacri-
ficed, Elorn in despair had sought to destroy himself

When Neventer ascertained this, he, as head of
the dominant race of colonists, abolished the hideous
custom. He then endeavoured to convert Elorn to
Christianity, but the old chief refused to desert the
religion of his ancestors ; he, however, suffered his
son, Rioc, to embrace it, and finally Rioc entered the
monastery of S. Winwaloe at Landevennec.

CHAPTER XII

chAteaulin

A town without a chateau — Pleyben — S. Segal — S. Coulitz — S.
Bridget — The Montagnes Noires — Menez-hom — Headland of
Crozon — Lanveoc — Close relations between Ireland and Brittany —
Locronan — S. Renan — P'ingar — S. Tighernac — Irish bards sent to
Brittany for a lost poem — The Ossorians and the Hy-Bairrche — ■
The canal from Nantes to Brest.

ChAteaulin is pleasantly situated on the
Aulne, which makes snake-like writhings
before it reaches the sea. It lies under heights
that, for Brittany, are considerable. The principal
portion of the town is on the right bank, but the
old town is on the left, on which also is the railway
station. Chateaulin contradicts its name, for it has
no chateau, the castle having been levelled with the
ground, and all that is left of it is the castle chapel,
mainly of the Renaissance period. In an adjoining
cemetery are an elegant ossuary and a cross of
Flamboyant work. On the right bank is the church
of S. Idumet, with a spire ; it is modern and in-
different.

An excursion may be made to Pleyben, where is a
very interesting church which exhibits the transition
between Flamboyant Gothic and Renaissance classic

i8o

I'EASANTESS OF TLOARE

S. BRIDGET ~i8i

architecture. The tall tower has a gallery at the
summit surmounted by a central cupola, crowned by
a lantern, and there are four domed turrets at the
corners. The two other towers are Flamboyant.
Before the church is a fine Calvaire sustained on piers
and arches, erected in 1650. The date of the south
porch is 1588-91. Within the church may be seen
rich glass of 1564.

The dedication of S. Segal is to Cadwalader, the
Welsh saint, Abbot of Belz after S. Cadoc, and there
is a statue of him in the church ; but who would
have recognised the name under its strange trans-
formation ? or again, suspect that S. Coulitz, near
Chateaulin, is dedicated to Conleath, S. Bridget's
bishop? One is disposed to ask whether the poor
prelate fled to Brittany and founded this church, to
be away from petticoat government. According to
Celtic ecclesiastical order, the bishops had no juris-
diction unless they were heads of ecclesiastical tribes,
but were under subjection to the tribal chief, who may
have been a woman. So odd did it seem to mediaeval
biographers that Bridget should have had a bishop
at her beck and call, that they feigned that when she
was veiled as a nun by mistake the bishop then read
over her the consecration of a bishop.

Bridget, as head of a large ecclesiastical community,
had branch institutions in Brittany, as she certainly
had in Britain. In Brittany her name is transformed
into Berhet, and a funny popular story is told of her.
When Mary and Joseph came to Bethlehem, and the
Virgin was refused a place in the inn, she felt the
pangs of maternity come on her. Then she asked

i82 CHATEAULIN

for female aid, and the taverner's wife roughly
answered that none could be spared her, save that
of Berhet, a poor maid born without legs or arms.
But Berhet wriggled forward to the assistance of the
Virgin, and lo ! forth sprouted the deficient members.

At Berhet, near Guingamp, where the church is
dedicated to her, there is an image holding a hoop
set with bells, and this is worked by hidden
mechanism, so that during Mass the figure raises
its arm and shakes the wheel, making all the bells
tingle.

It is possible enough that Bridget may have deputed
Conleath to Brittany to see how her branch insti-
tutions were faring there.

Conleath's situation under the rod of a woman was
a bit humiliating, and at last he expressed a desire to
leave. She forbade him, and denounced evil upon
him if he ventured to depart unpermitted. However,
he stole away in the night, lost his road among the
Wicklow mountains and was fallen on and devoured
by wolves. " Serve him right ! " said Bridget when
informed of the fatal event.

To the south of Chateaulin runs the range of the
Montagnes Noires, that culminate in the Menez-hom,
the highest "mountain" in Lower Brittany, but attain-
ing hardly to a thousand feet. At the foot is the
chapel of Ste. Marie, wdth a Calvary and a good
Renaissance tower. From thence the ascent of the
Menez-hom can be made in half an hour. It is
worth the trouble, as it commands a superb view of
the Rade de Brest to the north and the Bay of
Douarnenez to the south.

THE HEADLAND OF CROZON i8

The Montagnes Noires are disappointing. Black
mountains they are not. The average altitude is
750 feet. The chain of the Menez runs due east and
west athwart Ille-et-Vilaine and C6tes-du-Nord to
near Callac, where it forks. The northern branch is
the Monts d'Arre, which are bolder than the Mon-
tagnes Noires, and more barren and rocky. The
latter form the southern prong of the fork. The
traveller crosses them without being aware that they
are " mountains." A rounded hump reaching 900 feet
is regarded as something very great. But the Menez-
hom, where the branch comes to an end abruptly, is
the giant of this pigmy range. It is just 990 feet
high, and resembles a dish-cover. But inasmuch as it
rises near the sea, and commands the beautiful Bay
of Douarnenez, it is deserving of notice.

The whole headland of Crozon is interesting.
There is some fine rock scenery on the coast, with
caves and crags quaintly carved by the waves and
storms of the Atlantic. They are supposed to be
haunted by the Korrigans, or spirits of the sea.

A good many rude stone monuments are scattered
over the promontory. At Telgruc is a dolmen ; there
is an avenue of standing stones at Kernuz, also at
Camaret and at Lanveoc, a foundation of the Irish
Fiacc, Bishop of Sletty, a disciple of S. Patrick.
When the apostle appeared before the Irish king,
Leogaire, at Tara, in 455, the king and all his nobles
received him seated, except Fiacc, son of the chief
court bard, then a lad of eighteen. He rose to
his feet. Patrick afterwards baptised him and then
ordained him.

i84 CHATEAULIN

We hardly realise how close was the intercom-
munication between Ireland, Britain, and Brittany
in the fifth and sixth centuries, till we note founda-
tions of great missionaries and abbots in all three.
The fact was that Patrick drew those who assisted
him in the conversion of Ireland very extensively
from Wales and from Armorica, and doubtless had
nurseries in Brittany as well as in Cornwall and
Wales, whence he could draw helpers as he needed
them.

Locronan, near Douarnenez, is another Irish foun-
dation. Ronan spent some time in Cornwall, and
then came on to Cornouaille in Brittany, and settled
at this place, where he began mission work among
the natives, and not among the British settlers. He
was eminently successful, till he excited the jealousy
of a woman whose husband listened attentively to
his teaching, and she began to fear lest the missioner
should draw him away from his home duties, and
induce him to become a scholar and a monk. Then
she went among her neighbours, declaring that Ronan
was a werewolf, who every night was transformed
into one of these beasts of prey and carried off the
sheep from their flocks. She also declared that he
had stolen her child from its cradle and had devoured
it.

The superstitious people took alarm, and com-
plained to King Grallo. The king was a Christian
and a Briton, and he arrested Ronan, To satisfy
the angry and excited natives, he proposed that
Ronan should be brought forth on a certain day and
that he should let loose his hunting dogs upon him.,

AN IRISH SETTLER 185

when, if they snuffed any savour of wolf about him,
they would infallibly tear the man to pieces.

In the meantime he allowed the hounds to become
familiarised with the Irishman, and made him feed
them. Consequently, when the day arrived, and
Ronan was exposed before a vast concourse of
people, the dogs came about him fav/ning, and
licked his hands and feet. The credulous multitude
at once concluded that he had been falsely accused,
and when, further, the child of the woman who had
brought the charge against him was discovered where
she had temporarily concealed it, the conviction of
his innocence was completely established, and the
natives venerated him as a saint.

The pardon at Locronan has been described in a
former chapter. The church, which contains the tomb
of Ronan, is an interesting structure, with a massive
tower. The little chapel of the saint is beside it.
On the pulpit are represented the principal incidents
of his life.

Again, another Irish settler was Fingar. He was,
as far as can be judged, one of the Hy-Bairrche, a
clan in Leinster, which was expelled from the land
by the Hy-Cinnselach, and had to take refuge out of
the island. Many of them settled about the Land's
End, in Cornwall, but Fingar came to Armorica and
formed a plou where is now Pluvinger in the Mor-
bihan. He had, however, another settlement at
Ploudiri in Finistere. He is said to have come over
with seven hundred and seventy-seven Irish settlers
and seven bishops. He returned to Ireland to bring
over a second colony, but was driven by contrary

i86 CHATEAULIN

winds upon the Cornish coast, where the king, Tew-
drig, who did not relish such an influx of Irishmen,
fell on him and his party, and put him and several
of the rest to the sword.

Take yet another, S. Tighernach (Tierny). He had
been carried off along with his friend S. Eogain
(Eugene) as boys from Wexford by Ceredig, the
Welsh Prince of Cardigan, who sold them as slaves,
S. Patrick was so wroth at this attack on Ireland and
capture of Christians that he wrote a strong letter to
Ceredig, whom he calls Coroticus. At the inter-
cession of Mancen, head of the missionary college
established at the White House on S. David's Head,
Ceredig surrendered the boys to him, and Mancen
brought them up to become missionaries. Then a
fresh band of pirates entered Porthmawr, sacked the
monastery, and carried off the scholars, Tighernach
and Eoghain included, and sold them as slaves in
Armorica, where one of the petty kings bought
them and set them to grind corn for his household.

One morning the steward, not hearing the quern
going, looked into the mill and saw the two lads with
a Psalter open before them reading the Psalms. He
informed the king, who, having a respect for scholar-
ship, at once gave them their liberty and returned
them to Mancen at the White House.

In time the two friends went to Ireland, and
worked together, but then their paths separated.
Eoghain became Bishop of Ardstraw, and Tighernach
Bishop of Clones and Clogher. Probably before this,
and whilst his family was involved in troubles, to be
presently referred to, he returned to Brittany and

A LOST POEM 187

founded at least one religious establishment at
S. Thegonnec ; and probably was also the founder
of Landerneau, where he would be near his friend,
S. David, and his friend's mother, Nonna. It is
perhaps due to him that Loperhet was established
in the neighbourhood, named after S. Bridget, who
had held him at the font. But if in Armorica he
founded a mission college for men, he would certainly
plant there another for women, under the rule of his
godmother. In the evangelisation of Ireland the
clerics were ably seconded by religious women.

I mention these migrations together here, though
the colonies founded by Fingar and S. Tighernach
are not in the neighbourhood of Chateaulin, that the
reader may be able to judge from this group of
settlers from the south of Ireland how intimate the
relations must have been.

But we have further evidence.

In the middle of the sixth century the bards of
Ireland, to their consternation, discovered that one
of their famous traditional tales, concerning a cattle
raid of some historic importance, was lost. Frag-
ments were to be found, but not the tale entire.
After Ireland had been ransacked for it they met in
council, in 580, and appointed a commission to pro-
ceed to Brittany and visit the Irish settlers there, and
inquire whether any of them had carried off a com-
plete copy of the great tale. The commission went
to Armorica and returned, having succeeded in re-
covering the desired work. Now an Irish settler
would hardly retire to Brittany and take his light
literature with him unless there were other colonists

i88 CHATEAULIN

of his race established there and he expected the
Irish bardic tales to be appreciated by them ; as also
that there he would reside, and not be a mere bird
of passage.

Now it is a curious fact that the Irish saints we
find in Lower Brittany belong, as do those who
settled in the Land's End district of Cornwall, to
two great Irish clans — that of Ossory and that of
Hy-Bairrche, who occupied the country between the
Slaney and the Barrow.

At the beginning of the sixth century Oengus,
King of Munster, conquered Ossory, expelled the
royal family, and swept the inhabitants out of the
south, which he delivered up to be occupied by the
Deisi, who immediately entered on the territory
granted to them.

Precisely at this time Ossorian saints appear in
Cornwall and in Lower Brittany. Can we doubt that
they came over as fugitives, and in order to minister
in religion to their fellow Ossorians who were ex-
patriated ?

Then, about the same time, the Hy-Cinnselach,
who occupied what is now the county of Wexford,
invaded the Hy-Bairrche country, and drove out the
entire clan. It is certainly a curious coincidence that
we find precisely the saints of this expelled tribe
settling at this very time in Brittany and Cornwall.

The river Aulne that flows past Chateaulin has
been utilised to form the noble canal connecting
Nantes with Brest. It has good quays at Chateaulin,
and below, the waters enter the tranquil Rade de
Brest. The canal receives the waters of the Aulne

SLATE QUARRIES 189

from Carhaix, and then sweeps east to Mur, where it
bends south, and at Pontivy is joined by another
canal that descends to Lorient, receiving the waters
of the Blavet.

Below Carhaix are extensive slate quarries, and
barges convey the slates thence that are so largely
employed for roofs in Brittany, and are displacing
the thatch of broom.

CHAPTER XIII
OUIMPER

Foundation of Quimper — Water — S. Corentine — His fish — Origin of the
story — The cathedral — Statue of King Grallo — Deflexion of choir
— Themuseum — Church of Locmaria — A vested crucifix — S. Liberata
— MM. Le Brazand Luzel — Quimper faience — Mr. Goalen — Wolves
— The Bigauden country— Sardine fisheries — Douarnenez — Awheel
of fortune — The cross of Constantine — Cleder-Cap-Sizun — Costume
— Baie des Trcpassez — The city of Is — Inundations — Subsidence of
the land — Pointe du Raz — Primelin and S. Tugen — Bay of Audierne
— Blown sand — Old city of Penmarch — Pont I'Abbe — Cornouaille.

THE capital of ancient Cornouaille, and now in
the department of Finistere, and seat of the
bishop for that department which is coterminous with
his diocese, is a bright and pleasing town, beautifully
situated on the Odet and the Steir, which here unite,
and the paved quays make pleasant walks by the
river side.

A word of advice may be appropriate here that
does not apply to Quimper alone, but should be
followed throughout Brittany. Quimper lies in a
hollow, and its water supply was once drawn from
wells sunk in a soil sodden with the sewage of cen-
turies. It is now furnished with water brought in
a conduit from a distance. In the villages the well
is in the yard deep in farm manure. Consequently

190

S. CORENTIN AND HIS FISH 191

it is never advisable to drink water that has not
been boiled, and in a hotel one cannot reckon on
that. Therefore my counsel is, drink your half-bottle
of wine undiluted.

Ouimper is the old Curiosopltum, a Latinisation of
the British name which signifies a swf or collection
of caeraii, camps. It was founded by the British
colonists, and had as its first bishop S. Corentin, born
about 410, and son of one of these settlers. He was
granted lands by Grallo, King of Cornouaille, and
appeared at the Council of Angers in 453, and signed
its decrees.

Corentin had a little pool, with a spring of water in
it, near his cell. By a special miracle there lived in
this basin a fish, which served Corentin with a meal
every day. He put his hand into the water, drew out
the fish, cut off as much of its flesh as he wanted, and
threw it back into the well, where it recovered itself
before the next meal. Two eminent saints visited
him one day. Corentin was in despair. He had
flour, and could give them pancakes for dinner ; but
pancakes, before it was understood how to season
them with sugar, nutmeg, and lemon, were thought
to be insipid. He went to the fountain to have a
look at his fish. It would be like killing the goose
that laid the golden eggs if he boiled for his visitors
the entire fish. But, to his great joy, he found the
spring full of plump eels. He cooked them for
dinner in light wine ; and his visitors left, praising
heaven for having given them so dainty a meal.

However, one day King Grallo lost his way when
hunting, and arrived hungry at the cell of the saint.

192 QUIMPER

Corentin was then obliged to cut an unduly large
slice out of the back of his fish. The king's cook,
without whom Grallo prudently did not lose himself,
scoffed at the small supply ; but as he began to fry
the slice of fish it multiplied in the pan sufficiently
to satisfy the king and all who came to the hermitage.
Grallo was naturally curious to see the fish itself, and
Corentin took him to the fountain, where they found
the creature frolicking about quite uninjured. This
is why in Ouimper Cathedral and elsewhere in the
diocese the bishop is represented accompanied by
his fish.

The story is unquestionably an adaptation of a
pagan myth which we obtain in old Irish. The fish
was the " Salmon of Science " that lived in the
" Fountain of Coppla." Over the well grew hazel
trees that dropped their nuts into the water, where
they were consumed by the salmon, and the fish
became endowed with all the wisdom and knowledge
contained in the nuts. As late as 1400 an Irish poet,
Aengus Finn, says of the Virgin Mary, " She is the
Salmon of Science."

Now the salmon in the pool is the golden sun that
swims in the blue lake of the heavens, which dies every
evening and reappears every morn. And in the
legend of S. Corentin we have this nature -myth
applied to him.

The cathedral of Ouimper is a glorious building.
The choir is of the Geometrical style of the thirteenth
century. It was, in fact, begun in 1239. The nave
and towers were begun in 1424, and the spires were
only erected in 1854-6. These spires are altogether

CA[.\AIKE, IJLILLINE.N'

THE CATHEDRAL 193

admirable. The towers themselves are not so satis-
factory; they are cut down almost to the roots by the
long belfry windows, and have something of the look
of an overgrown Irish yew, with four shoots that
would fall apart and split unless tied together at the
head. The appearance would have been better had
the towers and the windows been broken into stages.

Over the west gable is the equestrian statue of King
Grallo. It was customary, on the great day of the
pardon, for a man to conceal himself behind the statue,
and at a given moment present a glass of wine to the
lips of the stone king. Then the fellow drank off the
draught himself, and tossed the tumbler among the
crowd, whereupon everyone sought to catch it, for he
who succeeded in so doing before it touched the
ground was supposed to ensure to himself overflow-
ing luck for the ensuing twelvemonth.

On entering the church the deflexion of the choir
from the axis of the nave is at once noticed ; it leans
to the north, and is the more noticeable as the
groining of Ouimper Cathedral possesses the feature,
unusual in France and general in England, of a central
rib. Bayonne Cathedral, that was built under English
domination and by English architects, also has it.

The deflecting of the choir is thought to represent
the leaning of Christ's head on the cross to one side ;
it is not invariably to the north, and it may be
questioned whether it does not often arise from
the fact of nave and choir being constructed
at different periods, and of there being a little
carelessness in determining the true axis of that part
of the building which was intended to remain,
o

194 OUIMPER

The clerestory windows throughout are filled with
ancient stained glass; the lower windows are modern
and of the usual flaring style.

North of the cathedral is the museum, that not
only contains a good picture gallery and a collection
of antiquities, but a well-set-up group of peasants
in plaster, in the several costumes of Finistere, re-
presenting a wedding. Good photographs of the
Breton costumes and churches may be had from
M. Villard, Rue S. Francois.

Half a mile down the river on the left bank is
the church of Locmaria, that is a fine example of
Romanesque of the eleventh century, and consists,
as did most of the churches of the period, of a
bold central tower, with transepts, an apse and side
chapels that are apsidal, a nave with side aisles.
The eastern part of the church has been rebuilt,
but on the old lines. An unimportant Flamboyant
porch has been added at the west end.

Over the rood-beam is a clothed figure of Christ
on the cross. These long-robed figures belong to
the earliest representations of the crucifixion, and
although this specimen is not of the eleventh
century, yet it is a reproduction of the primitive
crucifix of the church.

Such clothed figures have a curious story. After
the eleventh century they were given up for such
as are nude, with only the loin-cloth; and these
became so general, that the people could no longer
understand the meaning of the earlier representations,
and supposed, as the garments reached to the feet,
that they implied that the person represented was

S. LIBERATA 195

a female. But then, how account for the beard ?
The following story came into circulation, no one
knows well how.

There was once upon a time a King of Portugal
who had a beautiful daughter called Liberata, and
he purposed marrying her to a king — if not of
Spain, yet one who had his " chateau en Espagne."
But Liberata had vowed herself to celibacy. She
was unable to move her father to reconsider his
determination, so she had recourse to prayer, where-
upon a copious beard and moustache sprouted.
When the suitor arrived and saw the hairy damsel
he bolted, and the King of Portugal in a fury crucified
his daughter.

Now these long-clothed crucifixes came into
fashion with wives who sought to get rid of their
husbands, and S. Liberata, Wilgefortis or Uncumber
as she was called in England and Flanders, was
appealed to for this purpose.

In 1868 I strolled one day into the charnel-house
of a little village above Brieg, in the Rhone valley,
when I was startled to see a tall, dressed figure,
with a straw hat on her head and arms extended,
apparently making towards me. On examination
the figure proved to be one of Liberata ; and on
inquiry I learned that the scandal of wives appealing
to her to rid them of their drunken sots of husbands
had become so gross, that the village priest had
bundled the bearded lady out of his church, and
had consigned her to the old bone-house among
useless lumber. Whether the good women of Quimper
stroll down to Locmaria to put up their prayers to

196 OUIMPER

this robed and bearded figure when their husbands
have been particularly aggravating I am not in a
position to say.

One of the misereres in Westminster Abbey bears
a representation of S. Uncumber.

Quimper is the seat of the intellectual culture of
Finistere, and the ablest students of Breton antiquities
and collectors of traditional ballads and traditions, as
M. le Braz and M. Luzel, live or lived there. The
former has rendered valuable service to his country by
his charming studies of Breton life, his poems, and his
stories; and M. Luzel, now dead, took infinite pains to
collect the genuine folk-poetry of the country. Canon
Abgrall is the best authority on the architecture of
Brittany, and Canon Peyron on ecclesiastical history.

Quimper is also the principal seat of the manufac-
ture of the ware in faience that bears its name. It
is a pottery with a white surface, on which flowers,
fishes, and Breton peasants are figured. A good
deal is in imitation of old Rouen pottery. I shrewdly
suspect that most of the sham antique Marseilles
ware that finds its way into the curiosity shops in
Brittany, and is eagerly purchased as genuine, pro-
ceeds from some of the factories not a hundred miles
from Quimper. If not genuine, it is pretty. The
mark of Marseilles — a cross — is put upon it.

For many years an Englishman, who has left a
memory ever green, a Mr. Goalen, had an estate near
Quimper, which he planted, and there cultivated rare
shrubs and trees. One night he was dining in Quimper,
and he told his coachman not to trouble to fetch him,
as he would walk home. He had not got far out

INDUSTRIES 197

of Ouimper when he saw a wolf trotting along the
side of the road with its red eyes fixed on him.
He had neither stick nor any weapon with him.
He knew, however, that the brute would not venture
to attack him unless a pack were near. When he
reached his own gate the wolf leaped the low wall
at the side and kept a few paces off till the light
from his door flashed out on the drive. He had
lambs carried off by wolves from the lawn before
his house. In the Black Mountains and on the
Landes wolves are still numerous. They are mainly
dangerous in May, when they have their young.
A peasant told me that he was in like manner
attended by a wolf as he traversed a forest. He
kept it at a distance by striking matches at in-
tervals ; he was in an agony of fear lest his box
should not last till he reached the village, which
happily it did.

Ouimper is the key to the Bigauden country that
lies to the west. The strange, Tartar-looking Bigauds
occupy the whole district that ends in the Raz de
Sein to the west and the Pointe de Penmarch in
the south. It is made accessible by branch lines to
Audierne and Pont lAbbe. The whole of this region
richly deserves a study. Douarnenez, Audierne, Pont
lAbbe are the seats of the sardine trade, and fleets
of little vessels are employed in the capture.

Manufactories employ many hands — female labour
— in tinning the fish that are caught. In summer
it is advisable that the visitor should be well supplied
with chlorodyne, as the stench of the fish and the
boiling oil is calculated to upset the stomach.

198 OUIMPER

At Douarnenez, on June 20th, a procession is
formed at the church that descends to the harbour,
where the sea is solemnly blessed, as well as the
boats of the sardine fleet. It is a pretty sight. From
that day till December something like eight hundred
vessels are engaged in the fishery, manned by four
thousand men.

At Kerdreuff, in the chapel of Notre Dame de
Comfort, is a wooden wheel of fortune, with bells
suspended to it, that is made to turn and tingle.
A box for the reception of sous is under it, and it
is supposed to have a miraculous effect for the cure
of various maladies. The aspirant after health de-
posits his offering, and then pulls a rope that makes
the wheel revolve and set all the bells clanging.*
These wheels have a pedigree.

Among the Gauls the wheel was the symbol of
the sun. On their helmets they wore either horns in
honour of the moon, or a wheel in token that they
placed themselves under the protection of the solar
deity. A good many Romano-Gaulish statues remain
that represent their god holding the wheel

When Constantine the Great was marching against
Magnentius, he and the whole army witnessed a re-
markable mock-sun. He at once conceived the idea
of making political capital out of this phenomenon.
He ordered representations of it to be made and
placed on the banners of the legions, with one little
addition — he prolonged the vertical ray and gave it
a twist above the circle. By this means he converted

* Another such wheel, but fallen and broken, is at S. Nicolas, near
Le Faouet.

QUAINT DRESSES 199

it into an " undenominational " symbol. He pre-
tended that he had read in the heavens above the
mock-sun the words, " In this sign conquer." The
Gaulish pagan soldiers enthusiastically followed the
banner of their sun-god, whereas the Christians held
it to be the monogram of Christ. To Constantine
himself it was a stroke of political charlatanry.

The wheel is found in many Gaulish tombs, a
symbol of regeneration, and in the early churches
of Gaul it was largely employed, and given a new
signification as the sign of the Sun of Righteousness.
As such it was carried on through the Middle Ages,
and formed a special feature in the great cathedral
wheel windows.

Cleder-Cap-Sizun has its Pardon of S. They on
the first Sunday in July. This presents a good
opportunity for seeing the peasants in their gala
costumes. The Bigaudens have very quaint dresses.
The men wear long waistcoats embroidered all down
the front, and one or often two short jackets of dark
cloth that do not reach to the waist. The women
wear their skirts in tiers of three or four, one shorter
than the other, trimmed with bands of velvet at the
bottom of each, and edged with yellow silk stitch-
ing. The bodice is richly embroidered with yellow
silk from the neck downwards, and the turned-back
sleeves from the elbow are also worked. The under
sleeve to the waist is sometimes white, but also
sometimes of the same material and colour as the
rest. They wear bright blue or pink aprons, with
brilliant flowing streamers. The cap is of black
velvet, close-fitting, and the hair is drawn up at the

200 QUIMPER

back over it, and hidden under a little lace cap that
lies on the top. The velvet cap is richly worked in
coloured silks and has sequins on each side, and a
bunch of long, broad, bright-coloured ribbons at one
side. The effect is very gay.

At the Pardon des Carmes at Pont I'Abbe may be
seen a few women dressed in yellow and red skirts.

The dresses worn at a wedding are still gayer, for
silver lace is substituted for the velvet.

The tiers of skirts are intended to indicate the
fortune of the woman, each skirt representing a
thousand francs.

The children wear pretty little caps of velvet
covered with silver and coloured silk stitching and
with sequins.

The Ouimper district — not Bigauden — is dis-
tinguished by its costume. The men wear a coat
of a pretty pale blue colour. From Daoulas to
Douarnenez, along the coast to Plougastel, Saint
Germain, and east to S. Ivy, over the Montagnes
Noires to Pleyben, all the men wear the blue coat
or diuppen as it is called. The old men wear for
best brown homespun bragoubras or wide breeches,
but these are rarely seen on the young.

The extreme western promontory divides to give
place to a tarn, and beyond that is the gloomy Bale
des Trepasses, The lake is supposed to occupy the
site of the city of Is, and goes by the name of the
Etang de Laoual,

At Is King Grallo held his court, which was not
a little disorderly because of the bad conduct of his
daughter Ahes. Grallo himself was favourably in-

A FATHER'S LOVE 201

clined to the missionaries who came over in
numbers from Britain and Ireland, but Ahes flouted
them and turned them into ridicule. She was very
beautiful and eminently vicious ; and as the general
run of the people follow what is bad, the state of the
city of Is became rank with evil.

Now, one night S. Winwaloe w^as sleeping in his
cell at Landevennec, which Grallo had made over to
him, when an angel stood at his side and roused
him.

" Take horse ! " said the heavenly messenger, " and
speed to Is. The vengeance of the Lord will over-
take this accursed city, and the accursed woman
therein. But, forasmuch as the king has in him
something of the fear of God, it is given thee to
deliver him."

Then Winwaloe mounted his swiftest steed, and
galloped past Locronan, and at Ploare he turned
his horse's head and sped westward. He arrived at
midnight at Is, and all the city was involved in
revelry and debauch.

Winwaloe stood before Grallo and gave him the
message : " God will deliver thee, and thee only.
Therefore mount thy horse and fly with me. Hark !
I hear the roar of the advancing sea."

And above the shouting and the singing of the
drunken men and women in Is could be heard the
surging of a mighty roar.

Then Grallo saddled and bridled his horse; but he
had a father's heart, and he yearned to save his
daughter. So he sought her, and told her what was
coming upon the town. She mocked, but as she

202 QUIMPER

mocked there came a boom of a mighty billow that
had overleaped the bar of sand and had plunged into
the streets of Is. At once all was confusion. In the
place of song came cries, and for laughter shrieks.
Then Grallo put his arm about Ahes and lifted her
upon his horse, mounted, and turned to fly. Again
a thunderous roar, and a second wave had plunged
into the town.

" It is not given thee to deliver thy daughter," said
Winwaloe.

" I will not escape without her," answered Grallo.

And now the saint and the king spurred inland,
and as they rode the roar of the sea waxed louder ;
the lights of Is went out, and the cries of the dying
were carried along with the spray upon the wind.

The horses raced ; they knew that their lives
depended on their outstripping the ocean. But the
tide was swift, and the water swirled about the feet
of the galloping steeds.

" Cast her off!" shouted Winwaloe; "it is not given
thee to deliver her."

" I will not cast her off," replied the king. And
still the water gained on them.

Then Winwaloe laid his staff on the arms of the
clinging girl, and they were paralysed. She let go,
fell from the horse, and Grallo and Winwaloe tore
forward and gained high ground but just in time to
save themselves, but Ahes was swallowed up in the
sea.

Such is the legend. There is not a word about
it in the Life of S. Winwaloe. Now, is there any
foundation of truth in the story?

THE BAY OF THE DEAD 203

In the first place it is almost certain that in the
early part of the sixth century, between 500 and 550,
a subsidence did take place along the west coast of
Wales, which is very likely to have extended as well
to the primary rocks of Brittany. At that time the
sea broke in upon a large tract of country, once
eminently fertile, forming a hundred trefs or vil-
lages that are now beneath the waves of Cardigan
Bay. The district had been divided between two
chieftains, Seithenyn and Gwyddno, whose children,
in consequence of the loss of their inheritance, were
forced to embrace the religious life. About the same
date we learn that Gulval, the sister of S. Paul of
Leon, complained to her brother that her lands, which
were on the Bay of S. Michael's Mount, were being
submerged ; and we are assured that where that bay
now is was at one time forest, in which several
religious communities had been formed. In the
next place we have evidence in the Morbihan of
such a subsidence, for in one of the islets of that
inland sea are two cromlechs or circles of standing
stones that are now under water. Moreover, in the
lake which now covers the supposed city of Is
substructures can be traced.

It is therefore probable that some sinking of the
land did take place that has been exaggerated by
tradition.

The Bay of the Dead is the place of which the
story is told by an old Byzantine writer that at
night the boatmen are summoned by a mysterious
voice to ship over the souls to the Ile-de-Sein, as has
been already related. And that isle is the holy place

204 OUIMPER

where lived a college of weird women, who were able
by their incantations to raise and lay storms.

The Pointe du Raz is ever surrounded by a boiling
sea. The rocks there are bold, but not for a moment
comparable to the Lizard or Land's End. The
whole of this coast is dangerous for bathers, as the
currents run strong and the rollers are so great ; and
none should venture unadvised to plunge into the sea
even when comparatively calm.

At Primelin is a fine church, partly Flamboyant
and partly Renaissance, that contains a statue of
S. Tugene, anciently Eugen or Ugen ; none other,
in fact, than S. Eogain (Eugene), Bishop of Ardstraw
in Ireland. The natives have a funny story about
him. They say that he arrived there from Britain
with his sister, and in an access of piety vowed to
God that she should ever remain a virgin. But the
young lady soon developed levity of conduct, and
impatience at being forced to observe the ascetic life.
Eogain could not go back from his vow, so he
watched his sister day and night. If he and she went
out for a walk he threw stones about or beat the
bushes, and if he saw a bird fly out, then he knew no
man was about. Now one day a youth saw her and
fell in love with her. But as it was not possible to
obtain Eugene's leave to speak to her, he had recourse
to a trick. He hid himself in a furze bush, with a
bird in his hand, near where the saint and his sister
were wont to walk. He had not waited long before
Eugene and the damsel drew nigh, and the former
prepared to sit down and have his nap, but first threw
stones about, whereat the youth let go the bird.

S. EUGENE'S KEY 205

Eugene had hardly dozed off before he was roused
by hearing a male voice, and, looking round, saw his
sister in friendly converse with a stranger. " Hah ! "
he exclaimed in a rage, " better have to do with a
pack of mad dogs than look after one girl in whose
mouth butter won't melt."

For his observance of the vow, God granted him
after death to be the patron against hydrophobia.

In the vestry, in a silver shrine, is kept his key, and
on the day of his pardon, the Sunday before Mid-
summer Day, the peasants buy many little leaden
keys, manufactured for the purpose at Audierne and
Pontcroix, and these are touched and blessed with
the relic. Formerly those bitten by mad dogs were
brought to the church and thrust into " the Saint's
Prison," a chamber with mere slits for windows, on
the left side of the porch, were communicated with
the viaticum at the end of a stick, and then left to
die in convulsions.

One story about the key is that it was brought
to S. Eugene by an angel. Another is that it was
the old church key. The church had been built by
the English, and when they were driven out of
Brittany, as they could not carry the church away
with them, they contented themselves with the key.

But S. Tugen or Eugene was even with them. He
raised a storm and barred their way, till they threw
the key overboard, when it was washed up on the
shore of Primelin.

There is in the place a dolmen, under which is
a trough in which lepers lie and stretch themselves,
expecting a miraculous cure.

206

OUIMPER

The Bay of Audierne has good stretches of sandy
beach, and in parts the blown sand has extended
itself inland for a considerable distance, enveloping
farms and hamlets. This is principally noticeable
to the south of the bay, where the horn of Penmarch
(the Horse's Head) limits the bay.

FIG. 32. MENHIR, PENMARCH

If the existence of the city of Is be problematical
as matter of history, that of the city of Penmarch
is not so. Here existed in full historic times an
important town. Four centuries ago it rivalled
Nantes in importance ; now it has dwindled to a
struggling community of fishermen, and of its former
greatness nothing remains but six churches and

PONT L'ABBE CHURCH 207

numerous ruins of habitations. Two groups of
ancient houses, some fortified, are still occupied.
The most important of the churches is that of S.
Nonn, which is of the sixteenth century ; of S.
Guenole onlj^ the massive tower and a tiny apse
remain, and that of Kerity is in ruins.

An Irish visitor will look with interest at the rock
called "The Monk's Leap," where according to tradi-
tion Fiacc, Bishop of Sletty, took land.

The Pardon of S. Nonn is held at Penmarch on
the first Sunday in July. All this district can be
explored from Pont I'Abbe, which is reached by a
branch line from Ouimper, and it is so unsophisticated,
and so teems with megalithic monuments, as to de-
serve a stay in it.

The church at Pont I'Abbe has a very fine Second
Pointed east window, with a first essay at Flamboyant
tracery in the spandrels of the great wheel. The
architect will note here a feature common in Brittany
in windows of this period, the transom below the
wheel. It is not a pleasant feature. It is unknown
elsewhere.

Pont I'Abbe church tower has lost its spire. A
great rising took place among the peasantry, called
the Revoke du Papier Timbre, against an impost that
was distasteful, but actually rather against seigneurial
exactions. It took place in 1675, and the peasants
of this district signalised themselves on that occasion
by murdering some of the seigneurs and burning the
chateaux. The revolt was put down with some se-
verity, and a number of the peasants were hanged,
and it is said that as a memorial of the royal dis-

208

OUIMPER

FIG. 33. EAST WINDOW, PONT 1,'aBBE
(See note, p. 68)

pleasure the spire of the church, which was the pride
of Pont I'Abbe, was pulled down. The women of
the district in resentment declared that as their tower
was truncated they would cut down their head-

A MELANCHOLY SPOT 209

dresses, and ever since they have worn the ugly
stunted caps now seen among the Bigauden.

Loc Tudy has a fine Templar church of the eleventh
century that has been fairly restored.

At Combrit the pardon is on the second Sunday in
July.

This headland of Cornouaille is very bald and
desolate.

"No words can give an idea of the immobility of
this bare region, open to the winds from the ocean,
and devoid of the shelter of a single tree. A thin
soil stretches over the waste as far as the eye can see,
covered with scanty grass. Nowhere else do we
better realise the true character of profound melan-
choly that stamps Brittany." *

A curious moral, or rather immoral, condition of
affairs is said to exist in the Bigauden country, and in
a belt to Auray, The men are accustomed to exchange
wives, or lend their wives to neighbours. The clergy
have in vain striven against this, a traditional custom.
It is so contrary to the pure moral tone prevalent
elsewhere as to lend colour to the supposition that
this curious people belongs to a distinct primitive
race that anciently practised polyandry.

* Tro Breiz, Fischbacker. Paris.

CHAPTER XIV

OUIMPERLE

A haunted house — The abbey — Ste. Croix — King Gunthiern — Two
versions of the same story — Church of S. Michel— The Laita —
Castle of Carnoet — The Devil's Rock — Le Faouet — Chapel of Ste.
Barbe — Burning of Dutch William— Costumes of the neighbour-
hood— Concarneau— M. Alfred Guillou Chateau Keryolet.

I^HE "Lion d'Or" at Ouimperl^ is a hotel that
occupies the old residence of the abbots of
Ste. Croix. It is a building of the period of Louis XV.,
with panelled rooms. Here, before the Revolution,
Guillaume Davaux, fifty-second abbot and eleventh hi
covivicndmn, resided when he visited Ouimperle. He
had been tutor to the Dauphin, and was given the
abbacy in 1785. He resided in Paris, and came
to Ouimperl6 only to receive his rents, which he
"ate" in Paris. It was the custom of the time for
the king to give abbacies to any courtier who would
enter minor orders and dress in black.

When the Revolution broke out and the estate
of the abbey was valued, it was found to be worth
495,497 livres, and that there were only five monks in
residence.

According to tradition at Ouimperle, Davaux was

--«,

.i-^^..,':>^

VI li^^iMi:jij:!;]iJ^.i^

A GHOSTLY VISITOR 211

a worldly, well-bred man, who neglected his duties;
but the historian of the abbey, M. le Men, on the
other hand, describes him as " homme excellent et
plein de vertu." He died in Paris in 1822.

Now it has been confidently affirmed that since his
death the abbe has been repeatedly seen, or heard, in
his old abbatial house. He is heard between twelve
and one at night walking leisurely along the corridor
on the first floor, and is occasionally seen, in his black
suit with ruffles at wrist and at breast and with
powdered head, standing by the window, "washing
his hands with invisible soap in imperceptible water."

During the Franco-German War a cousin of mine
was staying at the hotel, when the house was without
other visitors, and there were no " garcons " about the
house. Then she heard the step along the passage
about one o'clock in the morning.

Next day, as she was being driven by the inn-
keeper to Le Faouet, she chanced to remark —

" I thought you were all such early people to go
to bed. But you were about very late last night."

" I ! Everyone in my house was asleep after nine."

" But I heard you walking past midnight."

"Ah ! but it was he — the abbe. He is often heard
at that time."

One night M. L , the host, was in bed. A

faint light entered the room through the casement,
when he woke to see a profile of sharply-cut features
between himself and the window, and he felt a
pressure as of a hand upon his pillow. Then he
heard distinctly the words : "Cherches, et tu trouves."

In deadly alarm he buried his head under the

212 OUIMPERLE

clothes, and when he ventured to look out again
nothing was visible.

After some consideration M. L resolved on

consulting a clairvoyant. This person informed him
that he must search in his cellar, and that, after
digging in the earth at a certain specified spot, he
would come on a flat stone, which he would raise,
and under it find the church treasure. He hurried
home, took spade and pick, and worked where
advised, and in due course lighted on the stone.

"Mais — j'etais trop impressione," said he. "I
covered it all up again and looked no further."

That is not a probable story. Either he found
something and did not desire that this should, be
known, or he found nothing and feared being
laughed at for his pains. Since then the ghost
has not walked.

The abbey of Ouimperle was in the Middle Ages
well endowed, and possessed Belle He. This was
coveted by the monks of Redon, who sent an
expedition to the island and occupied it, and
stubbornly refused to surrender it. The monks of
Ouimperle appealed to the Pope, but they of Redon
resisted admonitions and orders, and it was only
when formally excommunicated that they gave up
their hold on the island.

The church of Ste. Croix was attached to the
abbey ; it is now the parish church of the town
on the left bank of the river Isole. It is one of
those circular churches built to resemble the Holy
Sepulchre, that are usually connected with com-
manderies of the Templars. It was rebuilt in 1083 ;

BRETON WASHERWOIIEN, rONTAVEN

THE CHURCH 213

the chronicle of the monastery, however, speaks of
only a restoration, and of late years it has been
entirely reconstructed, but on the old lines. It
consists of a central circular space surrounded by
an ambulatory, and with porch and three chapels
built out of it at the cardinal points, so as to
give it a crueiform appearance. The central cupola
is supported on four piers, and the space beneath
this is raised several steps above the level of
the ambulatory. Beneath it is the crypt, that has
not been meddled with, and contains the tomb
of S. Gurloes, first abbot of Quimperle, who died
in 1057. The Bretons call him S. Urlou, and invoke
him against the gout. Against the west doorway,
on the inside, is a fine reredos of carved stone, with
figures of the evangelists, of 1541, that has been
wantonly injured to fit it for a place for which it
was not intended and is quite unsuitable.

The church owes its origin to a fugitive British
king, called by the Bretons Gunthiern or Gur-
thiern, which is the same as Vortigern, but of
course this is not the infamous prince who in-
voked the aid of the Saxons against the Picts and
Scots. It is impossible to identify him with any
other prince except Gwynllyw, the king of what
is now Monmouthshire, who was the father of
S. Cadoc, and who at Newport in Monmouthshire
is now called S. Woollas. As Gwynllyw became
a saint, and as his son Cadoc became a man of
great importance in Brittany, it is probable that the
two are identical, although the names by which
known in Wales and in Brittany are so different.

214 OUIMPERLE

There is an element of considerable interest in his
history, of which we possess two versions proceeding
from Wales and one that comes from Brittany. One
of these is frank and obviously truthful. The king
was a wild and lawless prince, with a set of ruffians
about him. Hearing that the King of Breckon had
a comely daughter called Gladys, Gwynllyw set off
at the head of his rowdies, surrounded the country
house where she was visiting, and carried her off,
without asking leave of her father or considering
her wishes. She settled into contented married life
with him, and bore him a son, whom they called
Cadoc.

The biographer tells us that it was the custom
of the king to supply his larder by pillage. He
sent his ruffians through the land, taking from the
people whatever he wanted.

Now it chanced that a certain Irish monk, named
Tathan, settled in the neighbourhood. Gunthiern
sent for him to his castle, and arranged with his
men to have some fun out of the old fellow. So
they brought in a tub and filled it with scalding
water, laid rushes across, and then threw a cloth over
it all. When Tathan entered Gunthiern waved in
the direction of this extemporised seat, and requested
Tathan to occupy it. But the monk had Irish
shrewdness, and seeing by the expression of the
men's faces that some trick was being played on him,
he cautiously seated himself on the extreme edge
of the tub, and spoiled thereby their little game.

He then read Gunthiern (Gwynllyw) such a homily
on bad manners, lack of hospitality, and undisciplined

GUNTHIERN 215

life, that the king was ashamed of himself, became
friendly, and finally confided to him his son Cadoc
to be educated.

As age came on, Gvvynllyw and his wife Gladys
began to think it was time for them to prepare for
another world ; so they built a chapel of poles and
wattle, and daubed it with mud from the Usk, where
now stands S. VVoollas' Church, Newport. Their
caer or castle was hard by, and the railway tunnel
of the line to Cardiff runs under it. Every night
the aged couple went to the chapel and there prayed,
and every morning before dawn they descended to
the river and bathed together.

In the meantime Cadoc had become an abbot, and
had founded Llancarv.an. Cadoc visited his father,
and was well pleased to see how exemplary his
life was. There still, he observed, was room for
amendment. This bathing together of the old
couple hardly comported with his ideas of decency,
and he urged them to part company. They
reluctantly agreed, and Cadoc placed his mother
near a copious spring in what is now Tredegar
Park. There the old lady spent the rest of her days
in prayer and solitary tubbing, and was buried hard
by in a mound, where she still rests awaiting the
transfer of her skeleton to some anthropological
museum.

As to Gunthiern, worried by the incursions of the
Saxons and vexed by his conscience, which re-
proached him among other things for the murder
of his nephew, and urged thereto by the persuasive
voice of Cadoc, he resolved on quitting Gwent. He

2i6 QUIMPERLE

went first to Cornwall, and remained near the Tamar
till his son was well established in Armorica, when
he migrated thither. Cadoc had settled near Belz,
and old Gunthiern placed his cell at Ouimperle,
where now stands the church of Ste. Croix. In
Lent he was wont to retire to the Isle of Groix,
where he spent the season in commune with his own
soul and with God.

But the remarkable feature in the history is this.
Some monk in the eleventh century set to work
to rewrite his life, and he was greatly scandalised
at the picture of the wild disorders of the king's
youth, as given in the documents he worked on.
So he deliberately altered the facts " for edification,"
and represented the king as a pious and just prince,
ruling his subjects in the most humane manner ; and
then he tells how that, having heard of the religious
and modest life of Gladys, he sent an embassy to
her parents to ask her hand of them ; and how that
the King of Breckon, hearing a good report of the
King of Gwent, sent his daughter to him, and the
marriage was concluded in the most respectable
manner.

Happily we have both versions of the story, and
can thus see how facts were manipulated by hagio-
graphers in the Middle Ages to suit their somewhat
narrow religious ideas.

In addition to these narratives, we have also the
life written by a monk of Ouimperle, who knew very
little indeed of the early history of the saint in
Wales, and who gives us the conclusion of the story
which was unknown to the Welsh biographers.

THE BOOK OF CHARTERS 217

Probably no man has had more tricks played with
his name. Gwynllyvv was quite unpronounceable by
the English settlers at Newport, in Monmouthshire,
so they changed it to Woollas, and Latinised it as
Olavus. As S. Olave he figures at Poughill, in
Cornwall, where he tarried for a few years. On
reaching Brittany he became Gurthiern, or Gunthiern,
and popularly Gouziere, or Goujarne.

The Book of Charters of the Abbey of Quimperle,
together with the Life of Gurthiern and that of S.
Ninnoch, was carried away by one of the last monks,
when the religious were expelled from the abbey at
the Revolution. A Doctor Guillon received it in
payment for his medical services. On the death
of the doctor it passed to his son, who sold it to Mr.
Stapleton, who was travelling in Lower Brittany, and
he by his will left it, together with all his library at
Carlton Towers, in Yorkshire, as an heirloom. Only
by chance did M. Delisle, Librarian of the Bibliotheque
Nationale at Paris, hear of it, and he commissioned
M. Leon Maitre to endeavour to obtain a copy.
Meanwhile Mr. Stapleton was dead, and his library
had passed to Lord Beaumont, then very young, and
who was not easily found, as he was on his travels.
M. Maitre went to London and obtained letters from
the Marquis de la Ferronnays, French Ambassador,
to Lady Beaumont, at Carlton Towers, and M.
Maitre at once went thither. The librarian who
had catalogued the books knew nothing of the
cartulary ; nevertheless days were spent in the search,
all to no end, when, just as M. Maitre was leaving.
Lady Beaumont opened a drawer full of old news-

2i8 OUIMPERLE

papers and rubbish of all sorts, and pulled forth a
shabby little volume — and lo ! it was the very book
sought for. Copies were made, and the cartulary has
been published.

At Quimperle the Elle and the Isole unite, and the
combined stream below the town bears the name of
Laita.

From the bridge over the Elle a fine view is
obtained of the upper town, on the right bank, that
climbs the steep hillside, some of the streets being a
flight of steps, and dominated by the noble tower of
S. Michael. This church has a Second Pointed nave
without a west end front, which is built against.
Choir and narrow choir aisles and north transept and
tower are Flamboyant.

The east end is square, with a poor window, when
Flamboyant was stiffening to death. As the east end
is above the rapid descent of the ground to the river,
it has to be sustained by bold buttresses, and these
are pierced with arches for roadways. The north
porch is a superb piece of Third Pointed work.

Quimperle is, in my opinion, the most picturesque
town in Brittany. Unhappily it has lost its castle
and walls, which were pulled down in 1680 by the
inhabitants.

The river Laita may be descended by boat to
Pouldu ; the scenery is pleasing. The roadway to
Pouldu leads through the forest of Carnoet. On the
way the chapel of Lothea is passed, to which
pilgrimage is made on Whitsun Monday, when vast
quantities of birds are on sale. In the forest of
Carnoet are the remains of the castle of Conmore,

J ! • M » J

I'OKCH, S. JIICHEL, (JUI.MPPJRLE. EM) OF X\1H CK

THE BRETON SWITZERLAND 219

which, however, was rebuilt in the fifteenth century.
Conmore is locally regarded as a Breton Bluebeard,
but history knows of his having had three wives only.
The abbey of S. Maurice is near the river. It was
founded in 1 170.

The chapel of Rosgrand contains a very rich but
late rood-screen of oak, carved and enriched with
figures arbitrarily chosen from the gospel story and
from heathen mythology. It contains as well a
thirteenth-century statue of Yhuel, the grandson of
Gildas, who in his youth lived an eremitical life near
here, but ended his days in Wales, as Bishop of
Llandaff, and according to Welsh tradition he was
one of those who met Augustine, and refused to
recognise his jurisdiction. The statue represents him
as a youth with flowing hair. The Bretons knew
nothing of his after life.

At Locunole are some pretty sites, the valley of
the Elle with its cascades, the castle of Boblaye, and
finally the Devil's Rock. This is a mass that has in
it a number of perforations made by Satan when
polishing and sharpening his claws. According to
legend a peasant saw him there and pulled his tail,
whereupon, with a whisk, Satan sent him flying into
the air and precipitated him into the valley below,
where all his bones were broken.

The good folk of Quimperle call this part of the
country the Breton Switzerland, forgetting that in
Switzerland there is no sea and in Brittany are no
mountains.

From Quimperle to Le Faouet is 21 kilometres,
and the visit thither should on no account be omitted.

220 OUIMPERLE

Before reaching Le Faouet, which takes its name
from the beech trees which once abounded there, the
chapel of S. Fiacre is visited, standing a httle off the
road. It possesses quite first-class foliage-carving of
the Flamboyant period, of striking boldness, and a
rood-screen of 1480, that has lost most of its interest
by injudicious " restoration." The chapel was full of
superb old glass, now broken and blown in, and
hanging in scraps.

Le Faouet has a picturesque market hall under one
vast roof. From it Ste. Barbe is visited, a chapel
built on a crag above a valley clothed in gorse, and
strewn with granite blocks, very much like one on
Dartmoor. The visitor first passes a bell structure
on the rock head, then traverses a bridge to the little
chapel of S. Michael on a spire of rock. Clamps
let into the rock enabled pilgrims to crawl round the
chapel, hanging over the precipice, but an accident
having occurred a few years ago, through one of the
handles coming out, the police have forbidden any
further such attempts.

At a lower level is the chapel of Ste. Barbe, of the
end of the fifteenth century, with rich old stained
glass, and a small rood-loft or gallery with some
remains of good carving on it.

The Pardon of Ste. Barbe is on the last Sunday
in June. When this coincides with the Sunday after
the Fete Dieu (first Sunday after Trinity), the little
altars are erected among the pines and rocks, and the
procession goes to Ste. Barbe, resting at the stations
on the way, and nothing more picturesque can well
be conceived.

COSTUMES 221

A chapel of S. Nicolas in Prisiac, about four miles
from Le Faouet, contains a noble Renaissance rood-
screen, with its original paintings quite untouched,
and a " wheel of fortune," now fallen and broken.

There is a special interest to an Englishman in
this chapel. The people were celebrating their pardon
in 1690, when the news reached them of the battle
of the Bo}'ne, with the false report of the death of
William of Orange and the victory of James. At
once a figure of William, decked out with }'ellow
favours, was made and burnt in a bonfire. Although
it was learned later that the news was false, yet
thenceforth, every year, Dutch W^illiam was burnt
till 1828, when this feature of the pardon was
abolished. The folk called their figure Pistolance
(Prince d' Orange).

From S. Ivy to Ouimperle the costumes are dark,
but the women wear very becoming caps and collars,
which give them a characteristic appearance quite
apart from the other Finistere costumes. The cap is
of lace, and is elegantly planted on the head. It
differs in each district a little in its shape, and in
the loops and streamers. The cap is over a coloured
ribbon. In several places the women's skirts and
bodices are richly embroidered with gold and silver
floral designs. At Scaer the men wear black coats
with orange and red stitching, but otherwise in all
the Ouimperle district the men wear black coats
trimmed with black velvet. At Elliant, a little
village north of Rosporden, the costume is very rich,
as both men and women apply a great deal of
embroidery to their costumes, and the men wear

222 OUIMPERLE

white worked collars, but not elegant in shape — they
reach nearly to their ears. The women's bodices are
cut in a quaint fashion, and are double-breasted, with
rich work down each side, and with large quilted
collars lace -edged, and pretty caps after the style
of the Ouimperle cap. It is one of the finest
costumes in all Brittany ; and the little children are
dressed in exactly the same st}de as their parents.
The similarity does not end there : the little minds,
the habits of life as well as of body, beliefs, supersti-
tions, prejudices, grow with them ; and so generations
follow, thinking, feeling, believing, dressing alike.

At Concarneau, a great fishing place, lives M.
Alfred Guillou, a painter of Breton seaside folk, like
our English Hook, His pictures are full of delicacy
and charm, and seem to smell of the sea. He is a
native of Concarneau, and is a Chevalier of the Legion
of Honour. No visitor should leave Concarneau
without a visit to his studio.

Near Concarneau is the castle of Keryolet, given
by the Countess de Chauveau-Narischkin to the de-
partment in 1890. It has been converted into a
museum, and contains fine old furniture and a
collection of Breton costumes.

"Ta.

WO.MAX OF DOUARNENEZ

CHAPTER XV

AURAY

Auray — Hennebon — Its two sieges — The battle of Auray — Death of
Charles de Blois— Ste. Anne d' Auray — Origin of the pilgrimage —
Carnac — The church of S. Comely — The pilgrimage— Who was
S. Comely? — The alignments— Rows of Le Menec— Of Kermario
— Of Kerlescant — Period when raised — ]Musee Miln — Quiberon —
Massacre of 1795 — Chartreuse of Auray — Lagoon of Etel — S. Cadoc.

ALTHOUGH this chapter is headed Auray, I
do not propose suggesting that it should be
made headquarters for a series of visits. The town
is a mile from the station, and is not of remarkable
interest in itself; and I head the chapter as I do
rather because Auray is chef lieu d' arrondissement ,
and Carnac, about which I shall principall}^ write, is
only a village.

Yet Auray has its interest. It was the scene of
the decisive battle of 1364; but before speaking of
that it will be well to visit the interesting town
of Hennebon, and consider its sieges in 1342.

Hennebon is on a hill bathed by the Blavet, and
in addition to the modern town it possesses the
ville - clos, the old fortified Hennebon, within its
walls, and guarded by its towers. It is in itself a
town of the Middle Ages, and possesses a number
of old houses of various dates.

2 24 AURAY

The church of Notre Dame de Paradis is Flamboy-
ant and good of the style ; it was built between 15 13
and 1530, and has a fine spire. When Flamboyant
is good it is very good, and when bad it is execrable.

The story of the first siege of Hennebon has been
often and well told, and I will here do no more than
give an outline of it.

In 1342 Jeanne de Montfort held the place against
Charles de Blois. In full armour and mounted on
a charger, she rode through the streets encouraging
the soldiers and the citizens to maintain a gallant
defence. The cause of Montfort was that of Brittany
against the encroachments of France, which thrust on
Charles de Blois. The example of Jeanne stimulated
all, and the women even lent their assistance.

At intervals Jeanne essayed sorties. One day she
got through the besiegers' lines and was unable to
return. Great was the alarm felt. But after the
lapse of a few days the inhabitants saw her reappear.
She had taken refuge in a neighbouring castle, had
collected additional troops, and with them broke
through the intervening lines, and in so doing burnt
the camp of Charles and released his prisoners.

But the siege was long protracted, and provisions
failed. The citizens insisted that they could hold
out no longer, and desired that a surrender should
be negotiated. Jeanne entreated, and with difficulty
gained a delay of three days. The first and second
passed without the arrival of assistance ; on the last
day the principal citizens knocked at her door, and
on being admitted, protested that they could endure
no further.

SIEGE OF HENNEBON 225

Then from the hostile camp arrived the Bishop of
Leon, who announced that unless the gates were
forthwith opened Charles de Blois would put to the
sword everyone in the town regardless of age and
sex, whether garrison or citizens. Again, and for
the last time, the Countess mounted the highest
tower, and gazed seaward. There she saw the gleam
of white sails on the horizon, and knew that the
expected succour was at hand. And, indeed, it was
an English fleet containing six thousand archers
under the command of Walter de Manny.

Defiance to the uttermost was now cast back in
the teeth of the barbarous Charles, who, on hearing
of the approach of the fleet, raised the siege and
sneaked away.

The second siege took place later in the same
year. Charles of Blois sat down before the town
with a large army, and furnished with many engines
of war, but every assault failed. Then Luis of
Spain, his dark blood boiling with rage, went to
Charles and said, " Monseigneur, grant my request.
There are two of the English party prisoners in your
castle of Le Faouet, Jean le Boteller and Hubert de
Fresney. Let me have their blood. If you refuse
I withdraw."

Such a request staggered Charles. To butcher
prisoners of war in cold blood was against the usages
of warfare in Christian lands. Charles feebly sent
for the prisoners. Luis insisted on his demand
being complied with. Charles turned his sheep's
face from Luis to the captives in doubt and diffi-
culty. Then all the nobles and knights present cried
Q

226 AURAY

out against such an infamous proceeding as sur-
rendering these men to death.

" I insist on having their heads," retorted Luis.
" I will have them decapitated when I have done my
dinner." And Charles basely submitted.

Tidings of what was meditated reached the
garrison of Hennebon, and whilst the French were
dining Amaury de Clisson, who was in command
of the town, sallied forth with three hundred men,
rushed upon the camp, overthrew the tents, and cut
down all who opposed them.

Whilst thus engaged, Manny with a band of
resolute fellows, issuing from a postern, made direct
for the tent of Charles de Blois, liberated the
captives, and brought them in triumph into the be-
leaguered town.

Shortly after Charles raised the siege, and retreated
to Carhaix.

The battle of Auray took place on Michaelmas
Day, 1364.

The young Jean de Montfort was besieging Auray,
when he was joined by Sir John Chandos with a
hundred knights and a body of archers. The army
was for the most part made up of adventurers, some
English, many Gascons and men of Navarre, lawless
fellows who formed themselves into companies under
distinguished chiefs, sold their services to the highest
bidder, and subsisted indiscriminately on friend and
foe. The most notable Englishmen engaged were,
after Chandos, Hugh of Calverley and Robert
Knollys. Hugh de Gournay from Guienne was
there with his freebooters. Under Montfort were

BATTLE OF AURAY

■Zlj

his loyal Bretons. In all, the army was composed
of not above two thousand men and half as many
archers.

The host of Charles of Blois was almost double in
number, and in it were some of the highest nobles
of France, the Bretons of high position who had
espoused the side of Blois, and Bertrand du Guesclin,
a host in himself.

At sight of the disparity in numbers Montfort, who
was between the army of Blois and the garrison of
the town, deemed it expedient to treat for peace.

Charles was disposed to come to terms ; he was
in a dire fright over a dream that had troubled him
in the night. He had seen an eagle attacked by a
falcon from the sea, which pecked the feathers out
of the king of the birds and grievously wounded him,
Charles — this miserable barn-door fowl — supposed
that the eagle must signify himself.

But his wife would not hear of terms : she stormed
and scouted the notion ; and Charles, more afraid of
his wife than of his dreams, refused terms.

The battle raged from under the walls of Auray
to the hamlet of Ste. Anne. The army of Montfort
was on the higher ground, and reaped an advantage
thereby. Charles divided his host into three bodies
— or " battles," to employ the expression then in use
— and he had likewise a rearguard.

The first "battle" consisted of Bretons commanded
by Du Guesclin ; the second, composed of French,
was under the orders of the Count of Auxerre and
Joigny. The third, also made up of Bretons, was
under Charles himself.

228 AURAY

Montfort, acting on the advice of Chandos, also
formed his army into three bodies and a rearguard.
Robert Knollys commanded the first, OHvier de
CHsson the second, the third was under De Montfort ;
Calverley was set over the reserve.

At the last moment, just as the two armies were
about to engage, Charles sent word that he had
changed his mind and would listen to terms ; but
Montfort replied haughtily, "It is now too late. I
will be Duke of Brittany, or die on the field."

As at Poitiers, so at Auray, the knights descended
from their horses, so as not, if overthrown, to lie
prostrate and helpless, till assisted to their feet by
their squires.

A prophecy had been given circulation that he who
wore the ermine of Brittany would fall.

One of the knights of Montfort assumed the coat
of his master, and Charles of Blois made for him and
dealt him such a blow with his axe that the knight
fell to the ground. Charles, believing that he had
killed his rival, shouted, " Bretagne ! or est mort
celui de Montfort, par qui j'ai ete ainsi greve."

The news would have produced consternation in
the ranks of the Anglo-Bretons had not the young
Jean raised his visor and shown his ermine. Then
he hurled himself against the " battle " of Charles of
Blois.

The fight now became general, and, like one of
the old conflicts under the walls of Troy, a series of
duels between heroes. Charles had committed the
fatal blunder of using up his rearguard in the en-
gagement, instead of reserving it fresh and vigorous

THE GREAT EARTHMOTHER 229

for the last moment. A slight success was the result,
but it cost Charles the day. The rearguard became
entangled with the troops of Du Guesclin, and threw
them into disorder ; whereupon Calverley with his
reserve at the right moment came down on the
French, who were breathless and exhausted, and the
superiority in numbers of the army of Blois only
served to make the confusion the greater.

The defeat resolved itself into a rout. Before the
battle had begun word had been passed in each
camp that the leader on the other side was not to
be taken alive. Charles fought desperately, but fell,
crying out with his last breath that he was not to
blame, it was his wife's doing that he engaged in the
battle.

The day ended in butchery. Du Guesclin was
taken prisoner. A thousand on the side of Charles
lost their lives, among them the flower of the Breton
nobility, and 1,529 prisoners were taken.

Ste. Anne dWuray is not worth a visit except on
the occasion of a pardon. The story of this most
frequented shrine deserves relating in a few words.

Where the pilgrimage church now stands was for-
merly a place called Keranna, that is to say, the
Caer or Camp of Anna. This Anna was the Mother
of the Gods among the Celts, but probably adopted
by them from the dolmen-builders they had sub-
jugated. She was apparently the great Earthmother
who presided over births, but who also received the
dead. And the Breton name Ankou for Death
impersonified is perhaps a reminiscence of this Ane
or Anna.

230 AURAY

On March 7th, 1625, a peasant dug up a statue on
the spot, probably one of those Decs Matres of which
so many have been found in the Roman villa near
Carnac. He at once jumped to the conclusion that
it represented the Mother of the Blessed Virgin, who
was popularly supposed to be called Anne. For this
name there is no authority worth a rush. It is that
given her in an apocryphal gospel which is historic-
ally worthless.

The Carmelites heard of it, and determined on
exploiting this discovery. They organised a cult of
the image in 1627, and it "took on." The image was
destroyed in 1790, but a scrap of it is supposed to
have been preserved, and is included in the pedestal
of a new image.

And now S. Anne is regarded as the special patron-
ness of Brittany. It is a curious story, and shows
how old beliefs hang on and reassert themselves in
changed forms.*

The church is modern, pretentious, and bad.

There is a large basin that is supplied by the
fountain of S. Anne, the water of which is held to be
good for bad eyes. The principal pardons are on
S. Anne's Day, July 26th, and during Whitsun Week.
An imitation of the Santa Scala has been erected
and indulgenced with nine years for every step which
the penitents ascend on their knees.

A branch line runs from Auray to Ouiberon, and
at Plouharnel is the station for Carnac.

The whole of this portion of the coast seems to

* The name of S. Anne is found in no ancient calendar. The cult
began in the fifteenth century.

PROCESSION OF PILGRIMS 231

have served as a necropolis for the ancient Veneti.
It is crowded with monuments of the dead. A few
days may well be spent at Carnac in studying them.

The parish church of Carnac was rebuilt in 1639,
and has a well-proportioned western tower and spire,
with spirelets at the angles, all of granite. The
granite blocks of which the spire has been con-
structed have been cut to overlap as they retreat, so
as to cast the rain off, and not suffer it to penetrate
the joints. Above the western door is a figure of the
patron, S. Cornelius, life-size, with a couched ox on
each side of him.

On the north flank is an extravagant baroque
porch, with a sort of baldachin of open granite-work
above. It is barbarous and fantastic. Within, the
four easternmost windows of the body of the church
are excellent modern work in stained glass — pictures
from the life of S. Cornelius, but the style suits a
church of so late a date and windows without tracer}'.

The fountain of S. Cornely, as the saint is locally
called, is at some little distance to the west of the
church.

The Pardon of S. Cornely takes place on the
13th September, and is a curious sight.

All the farmers for miles around make a point of
bringing their cattle in pilgrimage to the saint, who is
the patron of horned beasts. They drive them round
the church ; then the owners kneel before the figure
over the west door, say a prayer, after which they
drive their beasts to the holy well, where they sprinkle
their heads with the water.

The procession of pilgrims is also curious. They

232 AURAY

enter the church, kneel before the rehcs of the saint,
make the round of the church, and on reaching the
well are assailed by beggars and children holding
vessels that contain the water from the spring. The
pilgrim selects one of these, dips his right hand in it,
washes his face, and raises his arms to heaven so as
to allow the water to trickle over him. It is cus-
tomary for such farmers as can afford it to give a
beast to S. Comply. After High Mass these cattle
are ranged about the principal porch ; the clergy
come forth in procession and bless the oblations,
which are then led away to be sold by auction for
the good of the church. On the day of the pardon
the principal procession takes place in the afternoon.
The relics are carried on a bier by clergy, the crosses
and banners by lusty young pilgrims. The task is
not easy, as some of the banners are heavy, and a
few years ago a young man" of Ploemel fell dead of
exhaustion under the organ-loft bearing his great
banner. Cords of hemp are sold to the pilgrims, and
these are worn by them slung over one shoulder and
knotted on the opposite thigh, or else twisted round
their hats.

Now what is the origin of this curious worship of
S. Cornelius and his association with horned beasts ?
Some years ago the late Mr. James Miln excavated
a Roman villa at Bossenno in the parish, and besides
finding a number of votive images of Venus and the
Deae Matres, discovered one of an ox. This seems
to show that the oblation of horned beasts goes back
to pagan times.

Precisely the same thing that takes place at

A HORNED DEITY

-oo

Carnac now took place till the beginning of the last
century at Clynnog, in Wales, but there the cattle
were offered to S. Beuno. This saint and S. Cornely
have apparently supplanted a pagan deity, and the
same has taken place at S. Herbot and elsewhere ;
the oblation continues, but is now made to a saint.

S. Cornely was perhaps arbitrarily chosen because
the name was associated with a horn {conm). Cor-
nelius was Bishop of Rome in 252, and a martyr.
But this is not the story told of him at Carnac. There
he is held to have been a local saint, who in travelling
laded his portmanteau and other goods on a couple of
oxen, and drove them before him. He was pursued
by an army of pagans ; he fled before them till he
reached the coast, and there, unable to get further,
turned and cursed the host that pursued him, and
every soldier was thereupon transformed into stone.
By this means the peasants account for the vast
ranges of upright stones that form the alignments
of Carnac.

There was a horned deity worshipped by the Gauls,
and it is possible that the cult of this god may have
passed on to Cornelius at Carnac and elsewhere to
S. Nicodemus and S. Herbot.

That there was a local British or Irish missioner of
the name of Cornelius is possible enough. If so,
then the relics in the church may be his ; as
those of the martyr-Pope it goes without saying that
they are spurious.

Now let us look at some of the marvellous remains
of a prehistoric race that abound in these parts.

There are something like fifty dolmens or allces

234 AURAY

coiivertes within an easy walk, and there are numerous
menhirs independent of those which form stone-rows.*
Of aHgnments there are about ten groups, but we
will concern ourselves with three only.

The first step to be taken by the visitor is to ascend
the Mont S. Michel, and obtain a general view of the
great lines of Le Menec and Kermario.

This mount is a huge cairn erected on the summit
of rising ground. It is oblong in shape, and rises
about 60 feet. On the summit is a chapel of
S. Michael. The mound was dug into in 1863, when
a dolmen was discovered that contained over a
hundred stone axes, a necklace, and other objects
of the early Bronze Age. It is now undergoing
further investigation. A second dolmen has been
found buried in it, in which, along with stone imple-
ments, were two bronze buttons. The cairn is built
up most carefully of stones laid in order one on the
other, and over these a sheet of sea ooze and seaweed
has been spread, and then above this again fresh
stones have been piled. The floor was strewn thick
with small pebbles from the beach before the mound
was raised.

From the chapel a fine view of the sea and
the inlets and the peninsula of Ouiberon is ob-
tained ; and on the north the stretch of upright
stones that form the alignments of Carnac. To visit
these latter the following course should be pursued.
Take the road to Kaer Malvezin, and in a few
minutes, on a bit of rising ground on the left, is seen
a dolmen on which a cross has been erected. Very

* A little local guide with map may be had at the Musee Miln.

A CROMLECH

23:)

soon after the road traverses the lines of Le Menec.
There are still standing eleven of these rows, and
they run from E.N.E. to W.S.W. The total length
is 3,510 feet, and there are 1,169 stones in them.
The tallest menhir is 13 feet high, but the majority
run from 3 to 4 feet.

It is well to turn to the left and pursue the rows
to the western extremity, where is a so-called
cromlech or stone - circle, but incomplete and
apparently tampered with. It is now an enclosure
connected with the farm of Le Menec, and in my
opinion is nothing more than the engirdling ring of
a tumulus that contained a dolmen which has been
destroyed, the stones of which have been employed
for the construction of the farmhouse. At the same
time the shape of the enclosure was altered to suit
the farmer's convenience, and it is now no more than
a semicircle.

Having retraced our steps to the road, we cross
it, and follow the avenues of upright stones till we
reach and cross another road, that to Ploemel. The
road has broken through the lines, which continue
only a few yards to the east, and then are brought
to a conclusion by blocking-stones, that is to say,
slabs set at right angles to the lines.

From this point ensues a gap for about 345 yards,
where are a little plantation of Austrian pines, a
stone quarry, and some furzy enclosures. The lines
are not, however, wholly interrupted ; a few upright
stones and several that are prostrate testify that
there was some continuation.

We follow a new road through the plantation and

236 AURAY

between walls till we come abruptly on a fresh cluster
of stones, and these the highest we have yet seen.
This is the commencement of the Kermario group.
These started from several tumuli enclosing dolmens,
but of such only one, an allie couverte pertaining
to the southernmost line, remains. The relics of a
second barrow can be traced, and possibly of a third,
that has been mutilated to form a hedge.

The southernmost line is the most instructive,
though that also has suffered. There is a good allee
couverte running north and south, and from that
start two rows of upright stones that extend about
250 yards to a pair of fine blocking-stones, planted
at right angles to the rows, which run in an easterly
direction from the " covered avenue." Unhappily
the road and a field have invaded the land and caused
the destruction of much of these rows ; nevertheless,
sufficient remains to show that originally the dolmen
formed one end, that from which the lines started,
and that they were concluded — brought to a full
stop — by the tall menhirs that act as blocking-stones.

These stones, placed at right angles, seem to have
escaped the observation of the local antiquaries, or
perhaps they did not estimate their true significance.

Now Dartmoor is extraordinarily rich in such
stone -rows, and the majority are intact, so that
by them we obtain means of interpreting those of
Carnac, which are imperfect. It would seem that
when a great chief had been buried in a dolmen
or kistvaen (stone chest), the members of the clan
set up stones in a line, one for each household,
leading from the place of sepulture. When the

ALIGNMENTS 237

household was small and the arms weak, only a
small block was erected. A big family, with stout
young men in it, prided itself in erecting one that
was tall. x'\nd when all the families of the clan
had shown their respect for the chief, they all
combined to close the line.

But the dolmens or covered avenues were tribal
ossuaries. They were not intended for single inter-
ments. When again a burial took place, then a new
row was started, or if there were not room for that,
a fresh set of stones was set up beyond the original
blocking-stone.

These are some of the lessons taught by the
Dartmoor alignments, which have been left through
vast ages untouched, and are therefore priceless as
affording a clue to the meaning of these mysterious
monuments, such as might be sought for in vain
elsewhere, and which is certainly not to be found
at Carnac, where the wrecking hand of the farmer
has been at work on them from Roman times.

The Kermario alignments run north-east up a hill
crowned by a disused windmill that has been con-
structed out of the blocks, then they continue some
way till walls and a wood interrupt their course.
Ten rows remain, and the number of standing stones
is 98 2. But there were certainly more rows formerly
The largest of the menhirs is prostrate ; apparently
it had been purposely thrown down to form a
coverer to a Gallo-Roman grave that was beneath it.

What is of special interest is the fact that
a Roman camp was formed in these lines, and that
those who constructed the camp made use of the

238 AURAY

stones for their wall of enclosure, breaking up some
and employing others in their original position where
it served their purpose. Also, an examination of
the bases of many of the menhirs reveals the fact
that the Roman soldiery or camp followers squatted
under these great stones, lighted their fires against
them, and there took their meals, for not only have
ashes been discovered there, but also fragments of
Roman pottery and coins. This indicates that at
the period of the Roman occupation of Armorica
all sense of sacredness connected with these monu-
ments was lost, and we know how very strict was
Roman opinion relative to the sanctity and in-
violability of tombs.

From the easternmost end of the Kermario group
occurs an interruption of about 398 yards, and then
we encounter a third group, that of Kerlescant,
which stretches 885 yards, but is much mutilated
about the village. Thirteen lines can be traced con-
taining 540 stones, but there are others — some 40 that
lie to the north, and are supposed to form a square
enclosure, but which are probably merely a fragment
of other parallel lines. To the east again the align-
ment is supposed to describe a curve towards the
north, and then recommence and run east again to
the Crach estuary. Near the rows is also a ruined
allee couverte. But unless a visitor be specially
interested in prehistoric remains he will probably
be content with a visit to the Le Menec and Ker-
mario groups. The whole extent of the rows cannot
be estimated as short of 4I miles.

At Erdeven as well are alignments, which, though

DOLMENS AND TUMULI 239

sorely mutilated, must have been as fine as those
of Carnac, and possessed stones even loftier. There
also is the dolmen of Corcomo, which is the largest
in the Morbihan.

The Soci^te Polymathique of the department has
done good service in the exploration of dolmens and
tumuli, but it has neglected to do that which is of
supreme importance — plan the entire collection of
megalithic remains, and without a very carefully
made plan of the lines of Carnac, their interpreta-
tion cannot be attempted in any other way than
by comparison with extant remains of the same
character elsewhere, and then tentatively only. Till
the desired map has been made, the field is left open
for every sort of conjecture relative to the significance
of these monuments. If I have ventured to give my
explanation, it is because of my intimate acquaint-
ance with the unruined lines on Dartmoor, which, if
not on so gigantic a scale as those of Carnac and
Erdeven, are much more perfect.

As to the date of erection, that can only be deter-
mined tentatively. Certainly the most ancient
dolmens belong to the Polished Stone Age, and to
that of Bronze. But that the dolmens and cairns
continued to be used as tribal burial-places till after
the Roman invasion is probable ; that they were so in
pure Gallic times, in the Age of Iron, is indisputable,
for pottery (black) which is Gaulish has been found
in some. And this is not to be marvelled at, for the
same race which had raised these monumental tombs
continued under the domination of their Gaulish
conquerors, and impressed on them much of their

240 AURAY

religion and traditionary usage ; and that same race
remains, but little modified, on the soil to the present
day, still dominated by the same ideas.

Carnac possesses a capital museum illustrative of
its antiquities, founded by Mr. James Miln, This
gentleman, born in 1819, and possessed of a hand-
some fortune, devoted several years and much money
to the exploration of the remains at Carnac, which
he first visited in 1873. Then his imagination was
fired by the mystery that surrounded the strange
monuments there collected. He worked there from
1874 to 1880, when he returned to Scotland, and died
in January, 1881. His entire collection he left to the
commune of Carnac, which gladly accepted it, and
undertook its custody in a suitable building.

In this museum may be seen numerous miniature
stone polished axes, votive offerings made to the
dead, on precisely the same principle as the paper
garments and money burnt by the Chinese as
oblations to their deceased ancestors.

The peninsula of Ouiberon saw the disastrous dis-
embarkation of the French emigres from English
transports in 1795. It was a foolishly planned and
badly executed venture. Hoche with his republican
troops encountered them, and shot them all down to
the number of 952. The scene of the massacre
was what is now called Le Champ des Martyrs, near
the Chartreuse of Auray, and the bones of the un-
fortunate victims, which had been left in the place
where they had been shot, were removed in 18 14
to a vault of the Chartreuse. The chapel above
their bones is of white marble and contains sculptures.

S. CADOC 241

In addition to the mausoleum, a chapelk expiatoire
was erected on the spot where these gallant men
met their death ; and at no great distance, on the
old road to Auray, is a cross that marks the site
of the battle of Auray, already described, in which
Charles of Blois met his death, 1364.

If the coast northward from Plouharnel and
Erdeven be followed, through a country that is
strewn with prehistoric monuments, the curious in-
land sea of Relz, or river of Etel, is reached. It
is a creek that is almost landlocked between sand-
hills, and is shallow and encumbered with sandbanks.
After a narrow passage of nearly four miles, the
waters expand and run inland for from seven to
eight miles in tortuous armlets. There are several
islands and long-extended tongues of land that run
into the waters. One of the former, the Isle of
S. Cadoc, is connected with the mainland by a cause-
way, which is attributed to the saint.

S. Cadoc was the son of Gwynllyw, or Woollas, as
he is now called at Newport in Monmouthshire, and
his father, who was king of that part of Wales, gave
him to an Irish hermit to be educated. As soon as
he approached manhood, Cadoc visited Ireland to
finish his studies at Lismore. After that he returned
to Wales, and perfected himself under a Roman
rhetorician lately arrived. The doctor had more
pupils than money, and famine reigned in the school.
One day Cadoc observed a white mouse come out of
a hole in the wall carrying a grain of wheat in its
mouth. Cadoc searched, and discovered one of those
subterranean storehouses in which the Britons often

242 AURAY

preserved their grain. This had somehow been closed
up and forgotten. This was a great discovery, and
it served master and scholars for many days.

Cadoc then became a pupil of S. David, and whilst
with him headed a posse of Welshmen against the
Saxons. He found the latter encamped at the
bottom of a valley, and with no scouts out. He
surrounded them with his Britons, and rolled down
stones on them or pelted them. Nor did he desist
till he had killed them to the last man.

Cadoc afterwards founded Llancarvan, which be-
came a famous abbey. To furnish it with nursery
institutions he visited Brittany, and established him-
self on precisely this islet in the lagoon of Etel which
we are considering. However, he did not find it
answered all his expectations, and he wandered
through Armorica, making a good many subsidiary
foundations, all for the definite purpose of drawing
scholars together who might begin their training
therein, and then be sent on to be finished off at
Llancarvan, There are numerous chapels in his
honour throughout Brittany. His " pardon " is on
the fourth Sunday in October.

A FISHER-.MAIDENT

CHAPTER XVI

VANNES

Capital of the Veneti — Gtsar and the Veneti — Destruction — The Frank
invasion — British colonists— Gweroc — Macliau and Canao — MacHau
made bishop — Canao receives Chramm — Chramm's death — Fortifi-
cations of Vannes — Cathedral — S. \'incent Ferrier — -The Morbihan
— Gavr-inis — Peninsula of Rhuys — Gildas — Abelard — A gentleman
in quest of sunshine.

VANNES was the capital of the Veneti, a re-
markable maritime people, who monopolised
the trade in tin with Cornwall. They had large
vessels built of oak, and with sails of hide. They
conveyed the tin from Britain to Spain, where they
transferred it to the Phoenician traders, and these
latter distributed it about the shores of the Mediter-
ranean. As the trade of the Mediterranean was in
Phoenician hands, so was that of the northern seas
in those of the Veneti.

In the year B.C. 57 the Veneti, as well as the other
Gaulish peoples of Armorica, submitted to Rome,
and gave hostages to Crassus, the lieutenant of Julius
C?csar.

Crassus spent the ensuing winter in what was
afterwards Anjou, and as there had been a bad
harvest that year he was in difficulties how to feed

243

1244 VANNES

his legions. He accordingly sent to the Veneti and
other Armorican tribes to furnish him with what he
required. The Veneti did not feel disposed to do
this ; their harvest had been short, and they returned
answer that if Crassus wanted supplies from them he
must return the hostages he held. Crassus communi-
cated this answer to Csesar, who at once resolved on
completely crushing a people whose maritime power
he disliked.

He accordingly gave orders to his lieutenant to set
the people on the Loire to work building ships. He
also commanded those of what we now call Poitou
and the Saintonges to furnish vessels ; and he re-
quired a fleet to be got ready in the Mediterranean
to be despatched in spring to the mouth of the Loire.
Then he commanded Decimus Brutus, who was
destined to be his murderer, to take under him the
combined fleets.

As soon as the winter broke up Caesar himself
hastened to the scene of operations, and began his
attack on the Veneti of what is now the Morbihan.
Here he found that he had a difficult task on his
hands. The natives escaped to islands, and defied
him. The sea is shallow, and there are great ex-
panses of sand left dry when the tide retreats. These
stretches of sand would enable him to reach the
islands where the Veneti were entrenched, but ex-
posed his army to be caught and swept away by the
returning tide.

Caesar thereupon set to work building causeways
from the land to the islets sufficiently elevated to
ensure against disaster, and the remains of some of

CRUSHING THE VENETI 245

these great works may still be traced.* But he was
again baffled, for no sooner did he march upon one
of these islands along his causeway than the Veneti
entered their boats, carrying off all their goods, and
took refuge in another.

Nothing could be done to subdue such a people
unless their fleet were destroyed. Meanwhile the
spring and summer had been wasted. Then news
reached Csesar of the junction of the fleets he had
ordered at the mouth of the Loire, and he hastened
to see the naval conflict that was to ensue ; for the
Veneti, understanding that the Roman galleys were
coming out against them, spread their leather sails,
and made for the estuary of the Loire.

The land on the northern bank of the river at that
period had a different conformation from what it has
now.

From Nantes in a north-westerly direction to Pont
Chateau runs a ridge called the Sillon de Rretagne.
West of this is a vast region of turf bog, La Grande
Briere, in which lacustrine shells and deposits have
been found, but which was not invaded by the sea.
This in Caesar's time was a huge lake or morass.
The lagoon discharged its waters into the sea where
is now S. Lyphard, which was from the time of
Caesar's conquest made into a port. South of this
runs some high ground in a sweep to the Loire, from
Guerande to S. Nazaire, and a spur projected into
the sea where is now Le Croisic, separated from
Guerande by wide salt marshes. Now Caesar stationed

* At Gavr-inis, Coulabre, Goalabre. Bulletin de la Soc. des Cotes-
dii-Nord, i. 1S52.

246 VANNES

himself at Le Croisic on this finger of high ground,
which commanded the mouth of the Loire.

Brutus with his galleys came forth, and, as Caesar
tells us, the Roman vessels seemed mere dwarfs
beside the Venetian giants, which numbered 220
sail, that bore down on the Roman galleys, their
great hide sails swelling in the wind and the sea
foaming from their bows.

Brutus was afraid of having all his boats swamped
and sunk, and he was meditating a retreat to the
shore, and entrenching his soldiers, when all at once
the wind fell. Therewith the great sails of the
Venetians became useless. Brutus saw his oppor-
tunity. He was able now with his oared galleys to
attack each Venetian vessel separately from all sides.
He sent two and three galleys against each, and lest
the wind should spring up, and enable the Venetians
to escape, by means of reaping-hooks attached to
long spars he cut their cordage.

The Romans now had not only the advantage of
being able to assail each vessel of the enemy singly,
but also they were supplied with bows and arrows
and with leaden bolts, whereas the enemy were un-
furnished with projectiles. The Roman galleys, that
moved with as much rapidity as do steamboats now,
ran past the hulks, pouring on the decks a hail of
arrows and bolts, and when they had swept them,
boarded the enemy.

The Veneti in the other ships were unable to come
to the aid of such as were assailed, and were forced
to await their turn. By this means the Romans
were able to destroy their enemies piecemeal. The

ROMAN OCCUPATION 247

unhappy Veneti fought desperately, but were over-
whelmed by numbers. They fell sword in hand, or
leaped into the sea, there to perish by drowning.*

Brutus, having captured all the vessels, brought his
prisoners to Caesar. The latter had the throats cut
of all those who constituted what he calls the senate,
that is to say of the nobility, and sold all the rest as
slaves to the dealers in human flesh who always
attended a Roman army.

Thus Caesar pretty well exterminated a people of
great commercial ability and naval skill. It was the
only idea he had of repressing their monopoly of
the trade with Britain ; and he did it in order that
the traffic in tin might thenceforth be carried on in
Roman bottoms.

The destruction of the Veneti was a crushing blow
to all the Armorican tribes. In the year B.C. 52,
when Vercingetorix was besieged by Caesar in Alesia,
a supreme appeal went forth to the Gaulish patriots
to rally to his aid. Each of the Armorican peoples
sent a contingent of three thousand men, only the
Veneti were too reduced to be able to send any.

The Romans settled themselves in the country,
erected camps, made roads, built villas, and ate and
exported oysters.

Then came the Frank invasion, and Vannes itself
became a Franco-Gallic city, keeping up traditions of
Roman culture, of municipal government, and eccle-
siastical order.

Meantime every summer saw fleets of refugee

* I follow the account in Die Cassius rather than that given by Ca'sar,
who has coloured his to suit his own purposes. ~

248 VANNES

Britons arrive on the coast, and these new-comers
colonised throughout the country, and constituted
themselves a nation under their princes. At Belle-
isle is Le Palais, and the church there looks to
S. Geraint as its founder — that is Geraint, Prince
of Devon, the husband of the fair Enid, a gallant
prince who fell in 522 at Langport, in Somersetshire,
fighting against the Saxons.

There are two or three other foundations of his in
Brittany, and this seems to indicate that he had
visited it, and that he claimed an overlordship over
the colonists.*

However, as the native British kings failed to
maintain themselves in their own land, they ceased
to exercise any authority in Armorica.

Vannes was soon enveloped on all sides by the
waves of new-comers, who would not submit to the
crosier of the bishop nor recognise the secular power
of the Frank lieutenants.

In or about 550 Gweroc, Count of the Britons in
the region round Vannes, died and left five sons, of
whom the only ones whose names have come to us
are Macliau and Canao.

According to Celtic custom, at once the country
should have been divided into five equal shares, of

* A suburb of Vannes is that of S. Solomon. It is now held that
the patron is that infamous wretch who murdered his uncle, and was
himself assassinated in 874. But it is possible that he may have
supplanted his namesake, the son of King Geraint, and husband of
S. Gwen. who receives a cult as well. Gwen was sister of S. Nonna,
the mother of S. David. Hagiographers have admitted that there was
a saintly Solomon earlier than the murderer-saint, who has everywhere
taken his place.

EARLY HISTORY 249

which each son would have had one ; but such sHces
were not large enough to satisfy lusty appetites, and
Canao at once murdered three of his brothers, and
would have killed Macliau as well, had not the latter
run for his life and taken refuge with Conmore,
Regent of Domnonia,

Canao sent to demand his brother. Conmore made
]\Iacliau crawl into a tomb, and then set up a monu-
ment over him, bearing his name and title and date
of decease. This he showed to the messengers of
Canao, who departed satisfied that Macliau was dead
and buried.

No sooner were they gone than Macliau crept
forth, and, finding that Conmore's power was failing,
made a bold dash into the city of Vannes itself,
which was not in the hands of his brother, and pro-
posed himself to the citizens as their bishop, the see
being at that moment tenantless. They consented,
and he was consecrated bishop. To meet the Latin
ecclesiastical prejudices of the people of Vannes, he
dismissed his wife and children. This took place in
552.

About eight years later Canao received a refugee
at his court, Chramm, son of Clothair I., King of
Soissons, who had rebelled against his father, and
was forced to find refuge in flight.

There had probably been simmering hostilities
between the Bretons and the Franks, and Canao was
quite willing to take up arms on behalf of Chramm.

Clothair raised a large army and invaded the
district of Vannes. On the day upon which the
two armies met a battle ensued that was interrupted

250 VANNES

by the coming on of night. Then the Breton chief
said to Chramm, " I do not like the idea of your
marching against your own father. Let me manage
the whole thing, and I will fall on him during the
night."

Chramm refused, as he desired the battle to be
fought out by daylight, and his folly proved fatal to
his cause. Next day the Bretons were utterly de-
feated, and took to flight. Chramm escaped to the
coast to take ship for one of the islands, or perhaps
for England. But he was much attached to his wife
and daughters, and he left his boats to go in quest of
them. This lost him ; he fell into the hands of the
Franks, who shut him up with his wife and daughters
in a rude wood cabin belonging to a fisherman,
and thatched with reed, and announced the fact to
Clothair. "As he is my son, strangle him," said the
father ; " as to the women, burn them alive."

Accordingly Chramm was throttled with a kerchief
passed round his neck, and then the doors of the
hovel were closed and fire applied.

The shrieking women perished in the flames, and
Clothair returned to Soissons, comparing himself
to David, who had suffered from the rebellion of
Absalom.

No sooner did Bishop Macliau hear of the death
of his brother Canao, than he sent for his wife and
children, and proclaimed himself Count as well as
Bishop of Vannes. He was finally killed in 577,
along with two of his sons, by Tewdrig, Prince of
Cornouaille. His successor in the see of Vannes
was Regalis, who complained bitterly : " Here, in this

CATHEDRAL 251

city, we are as captives in the midst of the Britons,
we are subjected to their burdensome yoke."

Vannes preserves in its walls traces of Roman
building, but the fortifications that remain belong
mainly to the time of John II., Duke of Brittany
(i 286-1 305). The most picturesque portion is the
gateway east of the cathedral, the Porte S. Patern,

The cathedral church is one likely to perplex those
who do not know its history. It was a Romanesque
church, of cruciform shape, with a central tower at the
cross. This threatened to give way in the fifteenth
century (1454-76), and internal Flamboyant buttresses
were erected, towards the nave, ornamented somewhat
fantastically. At the same time the nave was re-
built under one span, without side aisles, but with
chapels between the buttresses. As the nave was
much wider than the tower, the lower portion of the
latter had to be tied into the walls of the church by
what are actually flying buttresses doubly pierced,
presenting a very quaint effect.

Now the Archdeacon Jean Danielo spent some
years in Rome, and was so delighted with classic
architecture he saw there, that on his return to
Vannes in 1537, he undertook to show the chapter
the superiority of the Roman style over Gothic,
and for this purpose, at his own cost, erected the
circular chapel on the north side.

In 1770 the chapter pulled down the central tower
and the Romanesque apse and choir and erected the
present structure, which is by no means ineffective.
At the same time they vaulted over the nave, and
because traceried windows did not comport with

252 VANNES

their ideas of beauty, hacked out all the mullions and
foliations. The tracery that now fills them was
inserted in 1845, when also the interior and exterior
galleries were constructed.*

The roof of the choir and apse is too low for that
of nave and transepts, and the effect externally is
bad ; but the interior appearance is better than might
have been anticipated in a building of the period,
and than it deserved to be, considering the way in
which funds were raised to build it.

The chapter, instead of appealing to the diocese to
erect the choir for the love of God, obtained a budget
of indulgences from the Pope, which they hawked
about Brittany and sold till the people were glutted
and would have no more ; and then funds were ob-
tained for the completion by means of a lottery.

In the north transept are preserved the relics of
S. Vincent Ferrier ; his head is in a silver bust that
represents him. The forehead is narrow and the
expression unpleasant. The impression produced by
this likeness is that he was a man entirely devoid of
largeness of mind, but with great force of character
and stubbornness of will. He is usually represented
with wings and carrying a trumpet, the wings sig-
nifying the celerity with which he flew about the
country as a revivalist preacher ; the trumpet sym-
bolises the sonorousness of his voice.

S. Vincent Ferrier died in 141 9, and his day is

* For the cathedral see Le Mene, Hist, de PEglise Cathedral de
Vannes. Galles, Vannes, 1882.

For the town, Le Mene, Topographic Historique de Vannes.
Galles, Vannes, 1897.

THE MORBIHAK 253

April 5th, but the pardon is held on the first Sunday
in September, when great numbers of pilgrims arrive,
and the singing in the cathedral of their cantiques
is pleasing, beside which it furnishes an opportunity
for seeing the costumes from the islets in the
Morbihan.

The Morbihan is an inland sheet of shallow tidal
water that communicates with the ocean by a channel
at Arzon. It is studded with islands, and runs into
numerous creeks. Two promontories shut it in from
the Atlantic billows, that of Rhuys and that of
Locmariaker. But outside these crablike claws is
a range of islets and sandbanks from the peninsula
of Ouiberon to that of Croisic, and further seaward
again is the large island of Belle He. Morbihan
signifies " the little sea," and it has given its name
to the department. It has this peculiarity, that no
rivers, only rills, flow into it. The "river of Auray,"
which is navigable for some twelve miles, is really
a creek of salt water, and the thread of sweet water
that flows through it at low tides is insignificant
The Morbihan has with justice been likened in shape
to a vineleaf, and presents very different aspects when
the tide is in flow from what it does at ebb. There
are long tracts that are uncovered when the tide is
out, of behin or black mud, neither pleasant to the
sight nor to the smell.

The largest island is L'ile aux Moines, and the most
interesting Gavr-inis, on account of its great cairn
and covered avenue, the walls of which are sculptured
with mysterious symbols. It is indeed one of many
puzzles to the archaeologist to explain why these

254 VANNES

carved monuments should be found in the islands
of the Morbihan and none about Carnac and north
of it. The sculpture much resembles that of the
sepulchral chamber in the tumulus of New Grange,
near Drogheda.

Stone axes are figured on the slabs at Gavr-inis and
symbols like escutcheons, but most of the ornamenta-
tion seems to be taken from tattoo marks on the
body, which signify tribal distinctions.

The inhabitants of the islands adhere to their old
costumes ; the men are all fishers, and the women are
said to possess the privilege, confined to English girls
in leap year, of proposing to the men.

The peninsula of schist rock of Rhuys is some
twenty miles long and only six across. On it Gildas,
the historian of the British, founded a monastery in
the sixth century. His bitter invective against the
native princes made it impossible for him to remain
longer in Britain, and he retired to Armorica, where
he founded not only the monastery at Rhuys but
another further inland.

Two Lives of Gildas exist, one written at Glaston-
bury and the other at Rhuys, and the latter supple-
ments the former. From his own writings we obtain
someting more.

The name Gildas is merely a form of Guldens,
and his first name was Aneurin. He was son of
Caw and grandson of Geraint, who, as we have seen,
had a palace on Belle He. His father. Caw, was
Lord of the Wall, and his duties were to defend
the Great Wall against the incursions of the Picts
and the Scotic settlers on the west coast of Alba.

GILDAS 255

Gildas was born, as he tells us himself, in the year
of the battle of Mount Badon. For reasons with
which I will not trouble the reader I would place
the date at 493, which has this advantage, that the
chronology of his life becomes by this means
consistent.

He was sent in his teens to S. Illtyd, who had
a monastery in Caldey Isle, off the coast of Pembroke-
shire, where he was schoolfellow with S. Samson and
S. Paul of Leon, both of whom were to settle in
Brittany. But he left as he approached manhood
and joined his father in North Britain, and was
engaged in the terrible battle of Catraeth. The
disasters of this battle form the subject of his noble
poem " Y Gododin," still extant. The result of this
defeat was that Caw and his sons abandoned the
defence of the wall and retired into North Wales,
where Maelgwn, the king, gave them lands, and all
but one embraced the ecclesiastical profession. The
one who did not was Ploel, who took to arms.

At what time Gildas married we do not know.
It was not regarded as inconsistent with the ecclesi-
astical profession to have a wife. Gildas became the
father of several sons, whereof one, Kenneth, was
a cripple, and became a hermit in Gower, but also
married and had a family.

Hoel and his brothers quarrelled with Arthur.
According to one account Hoel ventured to make
love to a lady whom Arthur admired, and they
fought, and Hoel wounded Arthur in the thigh, so
that ever after he limped. As Hoel one day sneered
at the king for his halting, Arthur, in a rage, had

256 VANNES

him out in the street of Ruthin and hacked off his
head.

The execution of Hoel gave great offence, and
Arthur was obHged to compound the matter with
the family of Caw.

For a time Gildas was in Ireland, where he had
some correspondence with S. Bridget, about 524.

Gildas moved from Ireland to the Scotic colonies
in the west of Scotland, but was recalled by the
murder of Hoel, that took place about 528.

Gildas now made the aquaintance of S. Cadoc,
and with him retired, one to the Flat and the other
to the Steep Holme, islets in the Bristol Channel.
There they lived on birds' eggs and fish. At the end
of seven years Gildas was forced to decamp, on
account of the incursions of the northern pirates, and
then he took refuge in Glastonbury.

Whilst he was there Meluas, king of what is now
Somersetshire, carried off Gwenever, Arthur's wife,
and retreated with her to Glastonbury. Arthur
summoned the men of Devon and Cornwall to his
aid and laid siege to the place. Gildas and the
abbot at last reconciled the kings ; Arthur was
quite content to have Gwenever restored to him.

From Glastonbury Gildas departed for Brittany,
whither so many of his monastic friends had already
gone. He, however, first visited Paris to obtain leave
from Childebert to form a foundation in Armorica.
Leave having been given him, he settled at Rhuys,
and there, in all probability, he wrote his spiteful
letter on British history. As Maelgwn, whom he
attacks — a man who had shown great hospitality

GILDAS 257

to his family — died in 547, the history must have
been written before that date.

He was not long at Rhuys before he was involved
in a quarrel with Conmore, lieutenant for Childebert
in Domnonia. The story shall be told when we
come to Carhaix. Conmore had mortally offended
Gildas, and in consequence the latter united with
Huarve, as already told, in the cursing of the prince
from the summit of the Menez-bre.

After the death of S. Patrick there had been a
great relapse of the natives into heathenism, and
King Ainmire invited him over to restore the
Christian faith. He and S. Cadoc went there
together, and it was due to them, and the flow of
missionaries with which S. David supplied them, that
Christianity was revived in the island.

Gildas died in 570. His last request was that his
body might be put in a boat and committed to the
waves,* This was done, but the people on the
mainland, in their greed for relics, pursued it in boats.
However, before reaching it, a wave swept over the
little vessel, and the body sank. Three months later
a corpse was washed up on the sands at Le Croisic,
which the monks of Rhuys were pleased to suppose
was that of their abbot. How, after having been
rolled about in the sea for three months, they were
able to recognise it we are not told. But it answered
their purpose, whosesoever the body was ; it originated
a cult, and some of the relics of this body, probably

* This smacks of a lingering paganism in the heart of Gildas. He
desired his mortal remains to be shipped to the Land of the Blessed
under the setting sun.

258 VANNES

not that of Gildas at all, but of some sailor, are
still shown at S. Gildas de Rhuys.

The church there is utterly uninteresting archi-
tecturally, as it is in the hideous baroque style.
It is attached to the convent of the Sisters " du
Pere Eternel." The monastery receives ladies en
pension who desire to enjoy the sea-bathing, but
no men are admitted. At Arzon, further on the
point, are megalithic remains, and the great tumulus,
" Le Butte de Tumiac," that has been explored.

The abbey of Rhuys had Abelard at one time
as its head. In 1125 Abelard gave up his charge
of the Paraclete, near Nogent-sur-Seine, to Heloise,
and was elected by the monks of Rhuys as their
superior. But he was too strict in his rule to please
them, and they rose in revolt ; they attempted to
poison and then to stab him. At length in disgust
he left, and died in 1 142.

At Vannes I met with a gentleman with his wife,
returned from Algeria, who had come to the Morbihan
in quest of a warm and sunny region where they
might build a house and settle for the rest of their
days. They had chosen an unfortunate time of
rain and storm.

Said monsieur to me, " I was urged to go to Belle
He ; there I was assured almost tropical vegetation
luxuriated. I went in an abominable little boat
that pitched and tossed when we got out of the
Morbihan on to the ocean. At Belle He I found
only colonies of young criminals and cases of stale
sardines. I saw no cactus, no myrtles ; I was shown
an orange tree the size of a cabbage, but its solitary

A ROUGH TIME 259

golden fruit had been blown away by the wind,
which was playing ball with it on the waves, I was
never so pitched in my life in the four hours I was
at sea ; my feet were so often above my head, that
at last I began to think with my toes ; and, worst
of all, I had no meal before starting."

" But," said I, " you took in a dejeuner on board ? "

" Mais, nioyisieur ! tout au co?itraire."

CHAPTER XVII
PLOERMEL

S. Arthmael — S. Samson's cross at Llantwit — The story of Armel in
stained glass — Church — North door — Josselin — The church — The
Battle of Thirty — The forest of Brociliande — Merlin — The foun-
tain of Baranton — The Brothers of Christian Instruction — The
Abbe de la Mennais — Education in France — Growth of the orders.

PLOERMEL is situated on rising ground near
the pretty lake that goes by the name of
I'Etang du Due, the sides of which present pleasing
scenes of quiet beauty.

Ploermel, the Plou of S. Arthmael, owes its origin
to a saint of that name. On an early cross at
Llantwit, near Cardiff, is an inscription to the effect
that Samson set up this stone for the good of his
soul and those of Juthael the king and of Arthmael,
Some Welsh antiquaries suppose that this stone is
later than the sixth century. But if so, it is very
strange that there should occur such a coincidence
of names at two periods ; for Arthmael was engaged
along with Samson in the planting of Judual or
Juthael on the throne.

Arthmael, or Armel, was born in Glamorgan, but
he crossed into Leon, and founded a settlement there
at Plouarzel, but was driven away by the usurper

260

THE CHURCH 261

Conmore. He then threw in his fortunes with S.
Samson, and energetically worked for the overthrow
of the prince. We find him at the court of Childebert,
at the same time as Samson, engaged in the same
attempt, to induce the Frank king to permit an
insurrection in favour of Judual. When the usurper
had been defeated and killed, Judual rewarded
Arthmael with the grant of the land by the lake
where now stands Ploermel. The founder died about
560. In a window in a north chapel in the church
is his story in stained glass of the fifteenth century
in eight compartments ; the subjects are as follows :

1. Armel, arriving from Britain, disembarks.

2. He with his company receives the ambassadors
of Childebert, summoning him to court.

3. The saint cures lepers and lame men in the
palace of the Frank king.

4. Childebert at the door of his palace dismisses
Armel, who undertakes to deliver the land from a
monster,*

5. Armel meets the dragon and puts his stole
about it.

6. He leads the creature to a river and precipitates
it into the water of the Seiche.

7. He heals divers sick persons.

8. Armel dies, lying in his grave, and an angel
bears a legend in the sky.

The church of Ploermel is very fine, of the period
of transition from Flamboyant to Renaissance, and
with a late tower. Its chief glory is the stained-glass
windows, coeval with the church. Of these the finest

* The dragon probably symbolises the tyrant Conmore.

262 PLOERMEL

is a Jesse tree on the south ; the next in beauty is a
Pentecost on the north side.

The church possesses a north transept entrance
that presents an interesting study of the change from
one fashion to another.

A huge arch encloses both the double doorway and
a fine Flamboyant window above it. The arch is
richly carved, as are the doorways. The foliage is
Flamboyant in character; the figure-carving represents
sacred subjects and sundry virtues. But on the
south side is a buttress that was most elaborately
though shallowly carved when the Renaissance was
in full swing. Thence all trace of Gothic feeling has
gone, indeed all trace of Christian sentiment as well.
The subjects chosen are mostly grotesque : a woman
pulling her husband by the nose with one hand, while
she plucks off his hat with the other ; a cobbler
stitching up his wife's mouth ; a naked woman on
the back of a nude man, each blowing a trumpet ;
also sundry monsters.

A mile out of Ploermel on the Vannes road is the
holy well of the saint, with his figure in a niche
above the water in a picturesque situation under a
great oak tree.

West of Ploermel is Josselin, where is the finest
castle in Brittany; it belongs to the Duke de Rohan,
who has put it in repair.

The river face of the castle presents all the charac-
teristics of the fortress of the Middle Ages, but the
courtyard reveals exquisite work of the early Re-
naissance period. The prevailing ornament is in-
geniously made up of interlacing patterns binding

i -

'1*

'■ ,%>'^ '« I

rf^

-K
X'-^..---^.-'^- --i

.-,(

CHATEAU ])E IDSSELIN

AT THE OAK OF MI-VOIE 263

together A and V, as this portion of the chateau was
constructed by Alain V., Viscount of Rohan, and
d+ (a plus), the motto of the Rohans.

In the church is the tomb of Olivier de Clisson
and his wife Marguerite de Rohan, heiress of
Josselin.

On the way to Josselin from Ploermel the obelisk
is passed that marks the site where took place the
Battle of Thirty. By the Breton peasant the long
agony of the War of Succession is forgotten, and only
the glorious day of the fight on the common of Croix
de Mi-Voie is remembered, in which thirty Bretons
defeated as many English. The facts were these.
A challenge was sent by the Sieur de Beaumanoir
on the Franco-Breton side to Bembro, or Bramber,
the Anglo-Breton captain.

Thirty on each side were to fight, but, as appears
from the list of names, there were but very few
English — four at most — on the side of Bramber.
His company was made up of Gascons, Flemings,
and Bretons.

On the appointed day, after hearing Mass, the
champions met at the Oak of Mi-Voie. They were
armed with lances and hatchets. One man carried a
scythe, another an implement armed with crooks.

All descended from their horses, for the combat
was to be on foot. The two companies were drawn
up in line on the heath facing one another ; the
heralds sounded, and both parties rushed forward
eager for the fray. At the first shock the PVanco-
Bretons were checked, they lost a man killed and
another captured. Several were severely wounded.

264 PLOERMEL

Far from losing heart, they fought on desperately,
and such a cloud of dust arose that the combatants
could not be distinguished by the spectators. After
a while, by mutual consent, both sides drew off to
recover breath and estimate their losses.

" Sir," said a squire to Beaumanoir, " I think were I
a knight it would nerve my arm to fight better."

" Kneel, then," said the Franco-Breton commander,
and he knighted him on the field.

Hardly was this episode ended before the Anglo-
Bretons came on, and Bramber, rushing upon De
Beaumanoir and grasping him by the arm, cried,
" Robert, surrender, and I will not kill thee, but
present thee this evening to my sweetheart."

"It is I," returned Beaumanoir, "who intend
offering thee to my lady."

Two of the French ran up ; one with his lance
transfixed Bramber, and the other hewed him down
with his sword.

Taking advantage of the confusion caused by the
fall of the captain, the Franco-Breton prisoners made
their escape, and killed Dagworth and two Flemish
mercenaries.

Calverley and Knollys avenged their chief by
wounding De Beaumanoir. The marshal, overcome
by the heat and by fatigue, retreated, and called for
water.

" Drink thy blood, Beaumanoir ! " replied a voice
from the French ranks. The marshal, recovering his
vigour, rushed again upon the English. But these
presented an insuperable wall of steel, till Guillaume
de Montauban, running to his horse, mounted it.

A VAST FOREST 265

" Shame on thee, squire ! " shouted Beaumanoir,
thinking the man meditated flight.

" Hold to thy duty and I will hold to mine ! "
retorted Montauban. Then, thundering down on the
English rank, he broke it, made his horse plunge
right and left, and brought confusion into the line.
The French, profiting by this stratagem, followed,
and the victory was theirs.

The Franco-Bretons had lost five killed, the Anglo-
Bretons nine. Of those that remained not one but
was grievously wounded.

French writers maintain that the act of Montauban
was not a contravention of the terms agreed on before
the combat ; but to all appearance it was so.

A rhymed narrative of the battle exists in the
Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, and has several
times been printed. Most of the MSS. of Froissart
are silent concerning the fight. The battle took
place on March 27th, 1350.

To the east of Ploermel stretched at one time the
mighty forest of Brociliande, so famous in the poems
and romances of chivalry. Of it now the sole re-
mains is the wood of Paimpont, near Plelan.

At the beginning of the Christian era and through-
out the Roman occupation the centre of Armorica
was covered by one vast forest, which sent its
streamers of wood down the rivers to the coast. The
Roman road from what is now Rennes to Corseul
cut through an arm of it, but the way from Nantes
to Vannes skirted it ; from Vannes to Carhaix it
traversed it. But otherwise the whole interior to the
Vilaine from the sources of the Elle, Odet, and the

266 PLOERMEL

Elorn was a mighty wilderness of trees, uninhabited
by man, and given over to the wild beasts. When
the British settlers arrived, their first work was the
making of clearings, and the monastic establishments
furnished centres from which the land was gradually
divested of its green mantle and was made available
for culture. By degrees it shrank, and the forest
of Brecilien, or Brociliande, remained through the
Middle Ages its main representative, still retaining
much of mystery and impressing the imagination
with the awe that the mighty primeval forest had
inspired.

Thus it is spoken of in the Welsh tales of the
twelfth century. Hither it was that Merlin, the
magician and prophet, retired, and where he remained
spellbound by the wood fairy Vivienne.

What had become of the wise counsellor was asked
in Arthur's court, and Gawain was sent in quest of
him. He found Merlin chanting his lays by the
side of a fountain in the depths of the forest, under
a flowering thorn. No inducement would draw him
back to court ; he remained there bound by the
fascinations of the fairy Vivienne. According to one
version of the story, this fairy induced him to enter
a hollow tree, which then closed about him.

The fountain is that of Baranton.

It occurs prominently in the story of the " Lady of
the Spring." In the Middle Ages all sorts of marvels
were related of it. W^ace, who was born in 1096,
speaks of its wonders, and tells us that he journeyed
into Brittany to visit it and learn if what was told
were true. In the same century William le Breton,

FOUNTAIN OF BELENTON 267

chaplain of Philip Augustus, says this : " What are
the causes that produce the marvels of the fountain
of Breclian ? Whoever draws water from it, and
scatters a few drops around, causes clouds to gather
in the sky, charged with hail, thunder to roll, and the
air to be darkened. Those who do so wish they had
never done such a thing, so profound is their terror.
This is a marvel, but it is true. Many persons have
assured me of it."

In the thirteenth century in the Ordinances of the
Count of Laval is an entry to this effect : " Hard by
the fountain of Belenton (Baranton) is a great stone
that is called Le Pej-ron de Belenton ; and whensoever
the seigneur of Montfort goes to the said fountain
and sprinkles the stone with water drawm from the
fountain, however hot the weather may be, at once
rain begins to fall throughout the neighbourhood,
so that the fields are moistened and the agriculture
prospers."

To this day the same opinion holds. In August,
and whenever there is drought, the inhabitants of the
parishes round go there in procession, with clergy
and banners and crosses, and the priest of the parish
blesses the spring, dips the holy water brush in it,
and sprinkles with it a flat stone that is held to
be the tomb of Merlin. This is firmly believed to
produce rain.

The well of Baranton is on the fringe of the forest
west of Plelan, near the frontier of the department,
and the Lande de Concoret. Hard by is a ruined
dolmen, which is held to be the tomb of Merlin.
The fountain is believed to utter moans on the

268 PLOERMEL

approach of a storm. Children now drop pins into
the water, saying, " Ris done, Fontaine de Baranton,
et je te donnerai une epingle."

The forest of Paimpont contains a number of
small lakes, fourteen in all, the largest of which is
Etang de Comper.

Ploermel is the headquarters of the Freres de
r histruction CJiretienne, founded by the Abbe la
Mennais, who died in i860.

The abbe was born at S. Malo in 1780, and lived
through the terrible times of the Revolution. When
the bishop, Mgr. de Pressigny, was about to fly to
England, the father of the young Jean Marie con-
cealed him in his house, and contrived to get him
on board ship. During the Terror the La Mennais
family did all in their power to preserve the priests
who were in hiding, and arranged where the faithful
were to meet them for the ministrations of religion.

When the Terror was at an end the bishop re-
turned to France. Jean Marie de la Mennais went
to him, and assured him that the ambition of his
life was to enter Holy Orders.

" Monseigneur," said he, " I have seen in Brittany
priests mount the scaffold ; I have seen their blood
flow under the axe of the persecutors ; and these
sights only deepened in me the resolve, if need be,
to die for the same cause."

He received minor orders in 1801, and that of
priest in 1804. But the bent of his life was towards
the education of the young. He felt more and more
every day that the only way in which to combat the
growing infidelity in France was to get hold of

EDUCATION 269

the youth and impress it with religious convictions
and the spirit of Christian morahty.

The miHtant anti-Christian attitude adopted by
the RepubHcan Government has made the Church
more resolute in its efforts to keep hold upon the
young, and has brought into prominence the work of
De la Mennais.

The educational problem in France is far greater
than it is in England. Elementary education there,
as with us, is compulsory and free, and religion is
absolutely and entirely banished from every Govern-
ment school in town and country. These schools
are supported by taxes, and there are no such things
as Government grants.

The condition of affairs was desperate. The
Church saw herself face to face with the danger
of losing all her young. She was thrown wholly on
her own resources, and she has bravely and splendidly
grappled with the difficulties.

Without attempting to make any compromise with
the Educational Department, and in spite of the
Government having in every town and village its
own schools, with well-paid teachers, in spite of the
most vexatious and continuous opposition from the
Government and the local authorities, she has now
some 40,000 elementary schools so sound in the
education afforded and good in the order kept, that
they are more than able to hold their own against
their rivals.

Now it may well be asked. How is this done ?

I will quote in answer the words of Mr. W. J.
Alston.

270 PLOERMEL

" The love of God and zeal for souls are the
secrets. The teaching is voluntary, the subscrip-
tions are voluntary, and all Catholics co-operate in
the work. The teachers look upon this work not as
a profession, but as a vocation from God, and they
are banded together in a religious order wherein they
live in community the life of apostolic poverty, holy
chastity, and obedience under a rigorous rule, spend-
ing some three hours morning and evening in prayer
and worship. The members of the Freres d'Ecoles
Chretiennes and d Instruction Chretienne do not be-
come clerics, and in order that their great object —
the education of the poor — may be kept continually
before them, they are not allowed by their original
rule either to study or teach Latin.

" To build and support these Christian schools
no less than sixty million francs are raised yearly
by voluntary subscriptions ; all Catholics, even the
humblest and poorest, co-operating in this work.
The money is chiefly raised by what is called ' The
Sou of Christian Schools,' a widespread inter-
diocesan guild, whose headquarters in Paris is
practically the ' Education Department ' of Christian
France. This guild enrols most of the devout
Catholics of France, and binds them to a share in
the good work. Some undertake to give a sou a
week, some a sou a day, some more. Then in town
and country there are various committees of lay
people who undertake active work, such as making
clothes for poor children ; of old scholars who keep
a kindly eye on the children after leaving school and
obtain employment for them ; another buys school

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 271

materials and prizes ; another is composed of volun-
tary catechists who assist M. le Cure in the prepara-
tion for first Communion, and so on. By means of
this remarkable organisation the rich and poor of all
classes are bonded together to give and to work for
the Christian schools. One is anxious for the future
generations in England, when one reflects that the
Church here has not yet risen to her responsibility '
in the future.

" The Christian brothers do not merely see to
elementary education ; their system corresponds to
the Government Lyc6es and Ecoles Normales, and
they give secondary and technical education, and
teach the science of agriculture in their agricultural
colleges. The object of the Christian schools is not
merely that there should be ' religious instruction,'
but that religion should rule, inspire, and ennoble all
other teaching."*

The Brotherhood of Christian Instruction was
founded in 1820. In 1825 it already consisted of
a hundred and thirty members ; in 1837 the numbers
had risen to six hundred and fifty. De la Mennais
died in i860, but his work remains and grows. To
the brothers is confided the education of the young
in Brittany, the south-west of France, and in many
of the colonies. There is no sign of diminution in
enthusiasm among the members, or of declension in
the numbers of those who apply to join the com-
munity.

Now we cannot put at less than three the numbers

* "The Church in France," in Church Review, September 6th,
1900.

272 PLOERMEL

of brothers employed in each school. That gives a
total of 120,000 young men devoted to the religious
training of boys. Not one is paid a franc. All do
their work voluntarily, and all are under vows not to
marry. It can be no other. This is forced on them.
The funds available will support a number of un-
married teachers who receive no pay, but they are not
sufficient to sustain salaried schoolmasters with wives
and families.

In France, with a dwindling population, this is a
serious matter. The Republican Government has
forced this condition of affairs on the Church, and
the Church has risen to meet her responsibilities.
She must feed the lambs of Christ, or be unfaithful
to her Master. But it seriously affects the growth
of population, and the Republic has to thank only
itself for so dointj.

CHAPTER XVIII

CARHAIX

Vorganium — The counts of Poher — Church of S. Tremeur— Story of
Tremor — Plouguer — Huelgoat — S. Herbot — His story — Oblation of
cows' tails — The economic line — Scaer — Fountain of Ste. Caudide.

CARHAIX is built on the site of the old Roman
town of Vorganium, of which numerous remains
have been found. Later on it was the fortress and
residence of the counts of Poher (the Highland), a
district embraced within the arms of the Montagnes
clArree and the Montagnes Noires, a large upland
basin. The town stands very high, and is a dull
place, but it is in railway communication with Guin-
gamp and Morlaix on one side, and with Ouimper
and Vannes on the other, by a branch that reaches
the main line at Rosporden.

The town possesses two churches, that of S. Tre-
meur and that of Plouguer.

Conmore, of whom I have often spoken, had lost
his first wife, and for a second he set his mind on
Tryphena, the daughter of Gweroc, Count of Vannes.
Gweroc was old ; he had five sons, and on his death
the brothers were certain to fly at one another's
throats. Conmore had already usurped the princi-
T 273

274 CARHAIX

pality of Domnonia, and he thought he saw his way
to getting hold as well of Vannes. So he sent to
ask for the hand of Tryphena. Weroc knew the
unscrupulous and ambitious character of the man,
and refused.

Then Conmore had recourse to Gildas, Abbot of
Rhuys, and he cajoled him into acting as his go-
between. The saint with difficulty induced Gweroc
to give way, and Conmore and Tryphena were
married.

At first their married life was happy enough.
Conmore allied himself with Macliau, one of the sons
of Gweroc, and urged the old count to divide the
county between himself and Macliau. Gweroc abso-
lutely refused, and Conmore saw that his ambitious
scheme was not likely to be carried out in the way
he had hoped.

Now one person who stood in his way was Tremor,
who was Tryphena's son by a former husband.*

Conmore had him assassinated in his court at
Carhaix.

This and his growing aversion from Tryphena
impelled her to flight. She escaped from the place,
and fled in the direction of Vannes. Conmore pur-
sued, but she was able to hide in the forest, make her
way in safety to Vannes, and to throw herself on the
protection of Gildas. This grim old saint, touched
where most sensitive, in his self-esteem — for he had

* So only can the story be reconciled with history. The legend
makes Tremor the son of Conmore ; but this is impossible, as shortly
after the curse pronounced on Conmore on Menez-bre he was killed
in the general insurrection, 555.

PLOUGUER CHURCH 275

negotiated the marriage — took the matter up, and
uniting with Huarve, the blind saint, summoned the
gathering on Menez-bre, already described, in which
Conmore was solemnly cursed. The great rising in
Domnonia ensued, aided by Weroc in Vannes, and
Conmore was defeated and killed.

Late legend writers have said that Conmore cut
off the head of Tryphena with an axe, and that
S. Gildas put it on again, and that after this event
she gave birth to Tremor. But all this is nonsense,
the mere embroidery of childish fancy over the
threads of history.

S. Tremor is represented over the west entrance to
the parish church of Carhaix holding his head in his
hands, and is figured as a full-grown man.

This church has been rebuilt with the exception
of the tower.

In the town is an old house, the lower stage of
Kersanton stone sculptured, the upper stories of oak
and slate, the oak carved to represent knights and
men-at-arms.

Plouguer Church, in a suburb of Carhaix, was
originally early Romanesque, and some of the plain
piers and arches and small round-headed windows
remain in the nave. But it was for the most part
rebuilt in the fifteenth century. Then it was altered
and spoiled in the seventeenth, when the tracery^ was
cut away from the windows, and the beautiful jube or
rood-screen removed. Portions of this latter have
been worked up into the backs of stalls behind the
high altar. The tower, intended to support a spire
which was never added, is remarkably good.

276 CARHAIX

From Carhaix Huelgoat should be visited, a
mountain village, where there are, however, no true
mountains. It lies at the lower end of a lovely lake
that decants in cascade down a gorge, forming the
river Argent that flows between pine-clad heights.
The scenery around is quite the prettiest in Brittany,
and the little place offers pleasant headquarters in
the summer. It is situated where the schist and
granite join, and where accordingly metal veins occur.
The lead mines have been worked since Roman
times. The granite hereabouts is easily decomposed,
and this has thrown it into masses of ruin. Wind
and rain have eaten away the supports of the huge
blocks, and then the masses fell. One not so upset
is exhibited as a logan. The same atmospheric
action has rounded the edges of all the rocks.

About four miles off, under the spurs of the Mon-
tagues d'Arree — let no one expect mountains, how-
ever— is the chapel of S. Herbot, beautifully situated
among trees in a pleasant dip. It has a fine tower
with pinnacles, and a square east end, all of Flam-
boyant work, but with buttresses at the east end
added in i6i6 and 1619. The chapel is really a fine
church, though only opened for occasional Masses
and for the pardon, which takes place on the
7th June, and is curious, as S. Herbot is here what
S. Comely is at Carnac, and S. Nicodeme in the
chapel that bears his name — the patron of horned
cattle. In the church about the altar were formerly
suspended many cow-tails that had been offered to
the saint. Now the hair is heaped on two stone
altars outside the screen.

WK^^^:

THE WHITE OXEN 277

This screen is very perfect, and is Renaissance. It
has no loft, but is canopied within over the returned
stalls. It is of admirable design and execution. In
the windows is much excellent old glass. The stone-
carved foliage of the west door and of the porch on
the south is as good as that at S. Fiacre.

Herbot was a native of Britain, who, like so many
others of his race, settled in Armorica. His Life
was preserved in the church till between 1340 and
1350, when it perished in the war between Blois and
Montfort, when the English pillaged the church.
The only legend we have is based on tradition. He
is popularly said to have preached at Berrien, but the
women were angry with him because he drew the
men away from the work of the fields to hear his
sermons, and they stole his linen which he had hung
on a hedge after a wash. Leaving Berrien, he went
to Nank, and asked a farmer there to lend him a pair
of oxen for ploughing. The man replied he had
none to spare. So Herbot cursed Nank that thence-
forth it should produce only good-for-nothing beasts.
Coming to Rusquec, he met with a better reception.
A farmer there bade him take from his herd what
oxen he chose. Herbot selected two that were white.
He harnessed these and ploughed his land. After-
wards the two white oxen would not leave him, but
always, even after death, were to be found at nightfall
couched in the porch of his chapel. Such farmers as
desired their services had only to borrow them of S.
Herbot at night, and return them before daybreak.

On one occasion, however, a grasping farmer did
not return them, but locked them in his shed.

278 CARHAIX

When he opened the door during the day they were
gone, and since then they have no longer been at
the service of men ; though still, it is said, they may
be seen, ghost-like, couched in the porch of the chapel
at night.

The sale of the cow-tails offered to S. Herbot
amounts to a goodly sum in the year. As much
as 1, 800 lbs. of hair has been given. Although the
amount of hair offered in ordinary years is consider-
able, yet in times of cattle plague it is doubled.

Pilgrims visit S. Herbot in May. Mondays and
Fridays are the days preferred. The cattle are
driven round the church, then led to the holy well,
where they are made to drink, and whence also
bottles of water are taken for use at home in the
event of the cattle falling ill.

The tomb of the saint is in the choir. On it he is
represented in hermit's garb, the hood thrown back ;
his hair is long ; from the girdle hangs his breviary ;
in one hand is a staff, and his feet repose on a lion.

A " ligne economique " runs from Guingamp by
Carhaix to Rosporden. It is slow, and dawdles along
its way, wasting much time unnecessarily. At Scaer,
on the way to Rosporden, there is not much to be
seen. The interesting old Romanesque church has
been pulled down and a vulgar modern erection has
taken its place. The patroness is Ste. Candide,
whose fountain is reputed to have this miraculous
property, that if a man drink thereof his breasts will
fill with milk.

CHAPTER XIX

RENNES

An ugly town — Fire — Library — Forged Decretals— Museum — Ancient
capital of Brittany — Siege in 13 16-17 — Single combats — Anne of
Brittany — Her suitors — Her marriages — Jeanne de France —
Character of Anne — Allee coiiverte of Esse — S, Armel — Castle of
Les Roches — Corps-nuds.

OOME fifty years ago, when a child, I was in
0 Rennes, and the impression the town left on
my mind was that it was the very ugliest place I
had then seen. Since that time I have been at
Darmstadt, which bears the palm of being the most
hideous capital in Europe. Mannheim approaches
Darmstadt in unsightliness, but Rennes comes third.
The reason is that the old town was destroyed by fire
in 1720, and it was rebuilt at a period when the sense
of beauty was extinct.

The town is divided in two by the river Vilaine,
and the Haute Ville, in which are the principal
edifices, the public buildings, and the promenades, is
on the right bank. In the lower town, on the left
bank, are the colleges, the Palais de Commerce, and
the barracks. The material of which the town is
constructed, a dull and dingy granite, assists in
giving to it an uninviting appearance. The portion

279

28o RENNES

of the city that was rebuilt after the great fire was
constructed in that love of uniformity that prevailed
in the eighteenth century. The cathedral is a horrible
structure, begun in 1787 and finished in 1844. The
church of S. Sauveur is in the Doric order, and was
built in 1728. But S. Melaine is an old abbey church,
part of which is Romanesque, continued in the
fourteenth century, and completed in 1672. There
are good quays by the river, and a public garden,
Le Thabor, a pleasant and shady summer lounge.

Rennes has an excellent library, that contains,
among other manuscripts, a copy of the Forged
Decretals, that manufacture of the tenth century
on which the papal claim to supremacy is based.
When Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, received a
copy he rubbed his eyes and wrote off to Rome to
inquire whether this was a genuine collection of papal
decrees from the time of S. Peter. The Pope
promptly replied that they were trustworthy, and
had always been preserved in the archives of the
Roman Church.

One old gateway of Rennes subsists, the Porte
Mordelaise of the fifteenth century. It is one of the
scanty relics of antiquity that remain to the town.

Rennes, beside its library, possesses a really good
museum, in which are preserved a number of old
prints, portraits, and views that illustrate Brittany
and its history.

Rennes was once a much more important place
than it is now. It was the capital of the duchy, and
it is now the seat of an archbishop. After the
Revolution the sees of Dol and S. Malo were sup-

BESIEGED 281

pressed and these added to the see of Rennes, which
was made archiepiscopal.

Perhaps the most notable event in the history of
the town is its siege by the Duke of Lancaster, which
began in October, 13 16, immediately after the crushing
defeat of Poitiers and the ruin of the French cause.

The English army consisted of a thousand men-at-
arms and fourteen or fifteen hundred archers. With
this host Lancaster proceeded to invest the town,
supposing that the heart of the French was so
broken by their disasters that they would readily
surrender the place.

Du Guesclin, however, hovered in the neighbour-
hood at the head of a small body of determined
men, and harassed the rear of the besiegers and
intercepted their convoys.

After several ineffectual assaults on the walls the
Duke resolved on undermining them. The com-
mandant of Rennes suspected as much, and ordered
all who had houses near the wall to suspend their
pots and pans in the cellars. As the English miners
advanced with their work, the metal vessels above
the mine were set in vibration and clinked. By this
means he was made aware of the direction in which
the mines were being pushed, and he proceeded to
countermine. A furious conflict underground ensued
when the two parties met. The defenders of the
town drove the English back and destroyed their
works.

Exasperated at this check, Lancaster had recourse
to stratagem of another kind. Knowing that the
inhabitants were reduced to straits for meat, he sent

282 RENNES

a drove of swine to feed about the moat on the
glacis, expecting that the garrison would make a
sortie and attempt to capture them.

But the commandant got a sow, and tied her in
one of the posterns by the feet. Her squeals attracted
the herd, and all the swine ran towards her. There-
upon the bridge was lowered, and the sow was slowly
withdrawn into the town, with the result that all the
pigs ran in after her. Whereupon at once the draw-
bridge was raised.

As the distress of the beleaguered town increased
it was deemed necessary, or at least expedient, to
communicate with Charles de Blois and urge him
to come to its relief. A citizen volunteered ; he let
himself down from the wall and swam the moat,
whilst the garrison shouted and discharged bolts
after him, as though he were a deserter. On being
brought before the Duke, he averred that he had
escaped out of the town, that the inhabitants were
at the point of starvation, and that a convoy of five
hundred German mercenaries with provisions was
approaching.

Believing the story, the Duke at once despatched
the larger portion of his forces to waylay the ap-
proaching body of men, and the pretended deserter
took the occasion to effect his escape. He fled to
Du Guesclin, who was at no great distance, and told
him all. Bertrand at once m.arched against the ill-
defended line, broke through, fired the English tents,
and seized a hundred waggons laden with salt meat.
The citizens threw open their gates, and Du Guesclin
entered with the captured supplies.

A FIGHT 283

Ascertaining that the drivers of the waggons were
peasants, and that the food had been commandeered
by the Enghsh, Du Guesclin ordered that full pay-
ment should be made for the meat and the drivers
dismissed.

The Duke of Lancaster was so pleased to hear
of the chivalrous conduct of Du Guesclin that he
sent a herald into the town to invite Bertrand to
visit him. Du Guesclin readily complied, and went
unarmed into the English camp, where he was
hospitably regaled.

Whilst sitting at table with the Duke an English
knight, William Bramber, challenged him, and it was
arranged that the combat should take place before
the town, between the walls and the investing army.

The fight took place on the glacis. The citizens
and garrison crowded the summit of the wall ; the
English soldiery were not suffered to approach
nearer than twenty lances' distance.

The Duke and the Earl of Pembroke kept the
lists. When the signal was given the two champions
rushed on each other with their lances at rest. The
spear of the Breton pierced the shield of Bramber,
but that of the latter struck the bassinet of Bertrand
with such force as to almost unseat him. He,
however, recovered his balance, and two more
passages of arms were essayed without result. At
the next onslaught Bertrand shore through the crest
of his adversary, and the sword, glancing to the
shoulder, cut the coat of mail and entered the flesh.
Bramber reeled and fell from his horse and was
carried from the field.

284 RENNES

Bertrand received the congratulations of the Duke
and returned within the walls of Rennes.

The ensuing night the English made a fresh
assault on the town. Lancaster had erected a huge
tower of timber on wheels, and this was run forward
to the walls. Its several stages were filled with
archers. But Du Guesclin made a sally, and set
fire to the tower, which was soon in a blaze that
illumined the walls and the camp of the besiegers.

Froissart has preserved for us a characteristic
incident that occurred during the siege. An English
knight, Sir John Bolton, had been out hunting with
his hawk, and had succeeded in securing half a dozen
partridges. Then he rode under the walls of the
town and shouted to the sentinel that he desired
a word with Du Guesclin. Now it chanced that
at the time Bertrand's cousin, Olivier de Manny,
was on the wall, and seeing the Englishman swinging
the partridges, he called to him to inquire whether
he had brought them there as a present to the fair
ladies of Rennes.

" I will sell them to you willingly for blows," replied
Bolton.

Thereupon the Breton knight jumped down from
the wall into the moat, swam across, and offered to
fight Bolton for the partridges.

After a long contest, De Manny proved the best
man, and forced Bolton to carry the partridges in
person into the town and present them to the ladies
there. But De Manny had been so severely handled
in the fight, that he needed certain herbs for his
wounds which could not be procured in the town. He

ANNE OF BRITTANY 285

accordingly sent Bolton back to the Duke of Lan-
caster, desiring permission to send someone through
the English lines in quest of the needed simples.

The Duke returned word that he would not only
allow this, but further, that he invited De Manny to
come to him and be attended by his own physician.
And Olivier de Manny accepted the offer, and was
cured in the Duke's tent.

At length, on March 23rd, 13 17, the siege was
brought to an end by an express order sent from
Edward III.

It was at Rennes that Charles VIII. met Anne of
Brittany, and was betrothed to her.

A few lines is all that has hitherto been accorded
to this interesting woman, who finally united the
duchy to the crown of France, and thereby closed
the long story of bloodshed and ravage which had
been that of her native province for nigh on three
hundred years. Her name is associated with many
places in Brittany, her house is shown at Morlaix, a
bell-tower she gave to Dinan ; but it is chiefly with
Rennes, as her principal place of residence, that her
name is linked, and here, therefore, it is fitting that
a summary of her life should be given.

Anne was born in 1476; she was the daughter of
Francois II., Duke of Brittany, and when her father
died in 1488, she was left the heiress to the ducal
crown.

Jeanne de France, daughter of Eouis XL, had been
married at the age of twelve to Louis, Duke of
Orleans, then aged fourteen. She was lame, and had
one shoulder higher than the other, but her face was

286 RENNES

full of intelligence, and her heart was that of a true
and good woman. Louis made no attempt to love
his wife. One day he spoke slightingly of her to
the king. Louis XI. replied: "Kinsman, you forget
that your wife is virtuous, and that she is daughter of
a mother against whom no one has dropped a word
of reproach." A retort that stung, for the mother of
Louis of Orleans, Mary of Cleves, did not bear the
best of characters.

After the death of Louis XI. his daughter, Anne
de Beaujeu, became regent during the minority of
her brother, Charles VIII. A strong-minded and able
woman, she was compelled to throw Louis of Orleans
into prison at Bourges, after a series of violences and
insurrections. Then his wife, Jeanne de France, never
wearied in her efforts with her brother and the regent
Anne to obtain his liberation. She spent her time
either in the prison with him, offering her faithful
service and consolations, or in besieging the regent
Anne, now become Duchess of Bourbon, for his
release. But Anne knew her brother too well ; he
was doubly perjured, ambitious, and certain to stir
up civil broils.

When Charles VIII. was aged twenty-one he de-
termined on taking the reins of government out of
the firm hands of his sister, and one of his first acts
was to let Louis of Orleans out of prison.

Whilst Jeanne de France had been urging the re-
lease of a husband who was to her ever a source of
humiliation and pain, Anne of Brittany, ten years
her junior, saw sovereigns at her feet. But it was
not without concern that she awaited the time for

ANNE OF BRITTANY 287

the assumption of the ducal crown. Her father
favoured the pretensions of the Sieur Alain d'Albret
to her hand. He was aged forty, and was the father
of a large family, and she a girl of fifteen. He was
a coarse-featured man with brutal manners, and in-
spired only disgust in Anne's mind.

Then her father entered into a treaty with Charles
VHI. which bound him not to marry his daughter
contrary to the royal will.

Three weeks after the signature of this treaty
Francis l\. died, and at once her hand was solicited
for the King of Castille, and for Maximilian of Austria.
At the same time the Viscount of Rohan put in his
claim. " Due ne daigne, Roi ne puis, Rohan suis,"
was the proud device of the Rohans. Alain d Albret,
moreover, resumed his suit, and claimed that her
word had already been passed to him. Anne pro-
tested that when aged twelve she had undertaken to
submit in the matter to her father's wishes, but that
she was now free to follow her own likings. There-
upon the Marechal de Rieux, governor of Anne, who
had favoured the pretensions of Alain d'Albret, re-
tired, marking his course with fire and bloodshed.

Alain occupied Nantes, and vowed he would not
surrender the town till Anne promised to marry
him. She fled to Rennes, where the good citizens
undertook to defend her against such overwarm
suitors.

The French king sent troops into Brittany to
capture the heiress and convey her to Paris, and
they seized on Redon.

Then six thousand English, sent by Henry VH.,

288 RENNES

and two thousand CastilHans disembarked in Brittany
to prosecute, sword in one hand and firebrand in the
other, the suit of the favoured rival. At the same
time the Breton peasants broke out in revolt in the
country of Ouimper, and it was necessary to carry
war into these cantons, a war of extermination like
the Jacquerie.

To add to the confusion, the young duchess learned
that Henry VII. of England secretly favoured the
Sire d'Albret, and that she ran the risk of falling
into the hands of the English, and of being conveyed
away to London.

Finding herself and her poor country exposed to
such dangers, Anne resolved on giving herself a
strong support, and she was secretly affianced to
Maximilian of Austria, King of the Romans.

The ceremony was performed by proxy, the
ambassador of Maximilian making answer in his
name, and then, in the presence of witnesses, thrust-
ing his leg, bared to the knee, into the nuptial couch.

No sooner did the regent Anne hear of this than,
she sent a second P>ench army into Brittany, and at
the same time set the theologians of Paris to issue a
decree that such a marriage as that contracted by
the Duchess Anne was invalid. To clench the matter,
Charles VIII. offered Anne his hand, and to make
her Queen of France.

Anne of Brittany, however, preferred Maximilian,
and if that prince had prosecuted his claim with
vigour he would have become master of Brittany.
But Maximilian was always penniless. A journey
to Brittany would cost two thousand crowns, which

JEANNE DE FRANCE 289

was beyond his means. Moreover, he was engaged
in Hungary resisting Matthias Corvinus, Thus he
lost at once his wife, her duchy, and his own daughter
Margaret, who had been affianced to Charles VIII.,
and whom this king cast aside for the hand of Anne
— affianced to the King of the Romans.

At once Charles hastened to Rennes, under the
pretext of making a pilgrimage, saw Anne of
Brittany, and was betrothed to her. The marriage
took place on December 6th, 1491.

No cloud troubled her married life with Charles,
who loved her, and she was warmly attached to him.
She bore him four children. The eldest died at
the age of three, and the Queen was inconsolable.
Charles ordered a tournament as a distraction, and
Louis, Duke of Orleans, danced a ballet before her.

" Sir ! " said the Queen, "how can you dance before
me when tears are in my eyes ? "

Charles VIII. died suddenly. In passing under a
low arch he knocked his head against it, and never
recovered sensibility. By his death Louis of Orleans
became King.

The Queen was inconsolable, and clothed herself
and her court in black. Hitherto the mourning
colour of French queens had been white.

" I have lost my life, my happiness ! " she said, and
returned to Brittany.

Jeanne de France was now Queen, as her husband
ascended the throne as Louis XII. But, poor woman,
gladly would she have surrendered all the pomp and
power of majesty for the heart of her husband. Nay,
even for one kind word from his lips. They had
u

290 RENNES

been married for four-and-twenty years, and she had
devoted herself to him faithfully without receiving
any return. Little did she dream of the fresh
humiliation to which she was to be exposed.

Louis XII. saw clearly that the hold on the Duchy
of Brittany acquired by Charles VIII. must not be
relaxed. He at once began to profess conscientious
scruples about his own marriage with Jeanne. They
were related within the forbidden degrees. But for
their marriage a papal dispensation had been obtained.

Louis had the effrontery to invite his wife to
declare that she had been forced into marriage with
him against her will. She refused to do so. She
would take no step to obtain a decree of nullity.
Louis was accordingly forced to sue for such a
judgment himself

The Church has always held the indissolubility of
Christian marriage. No pope or bishop has dared to
divorce those who have been united. But the Court
of Rome has devised an ingenious method of wrig-
gling out of the difficulty, and accommodating princes
and rich men — of course, for a consideration.

This is to go into the manner of the union, and
discover in it certain flaws, by virtue of which the
marriage may be declared null.

Louis XII. appealed to the Pope, Alexander VI.,
and the impious farce was set in motion. The
bishops of le Mans, Albi, and Ceuta were commis-
sioned by the Pope to inquire into the validity of
the marriage, which had taken place twenty -four
years before.

Jeanne's dignity did not desert her. She denied

A DECREE OF NULLITY 291

the motives alleged by Louis. They had received
a dispensation on account of their cousinship. As
to compulsion, in all the years of their married life
her husband had never breathed a word to that effect.

" I am not come of so low an estate," said she,
" that compulsion was necessary to get a man to
m.arry me. I know that I am not beautiful, nor so
shapely as are some others."

Then Louis XII. swore solemnly that he had been
forced into matrimony against his wishes.

" Sire ! " said Jeanne, " I have not always done all
that you might have desired of me, or been all that
you might have wished, but I have suffered deeply."

The three papal commissioners wiped their eyes
and presented their report to Alexander VI., who
pocketed the heavy fees sent by Louis, and declared
the marriage null and void. It is by such hypocritical
traffic in things of common decency and sacred obli-
gation that the Court of Rome has become a by-
word in Christendom.

Nine months exactly to a day after the death of
Charles VIII., Anne of Brittany married Louis XII.,
January 7th, 1499.

Anne had her good qualities, but she had a truly
feminine implacability of hate. In 1505 the King
was dangerously ill. Anne sat by him night and
day ; but knowing that on his death Francis of
Angouleme would succeed to the throne, she had
four boats laded with her treasures to be sent to
Nantes. The Marechal de Gie, Governor of Angers,
arrested them. Should the King die, these riches
would be saved to the State, so he argued. But.

292 ' RENNES

unhappily for him, the King recovered, and then
Anne insisted on De Gie being relieved of his charges
and dismissed the court. The Marshal retired to a
little country house he had called " Le Verger," the
Orchard. This did not content Anne ; she had a
criminal prosecution begun against him on some
trumped-up charge, which lasted two years. The
Parliament of Toulouse, rather to satisfy the Queen
than convinced that he was guilty, condemned him
to the confiscation of his goods. Anne had asked
for his head.

" Well," said she, when the judgment of the court
was read to her, " I am glad that he is left his life,
that he may have longer to suffer."

This procedure of the Queen against De Gie
provoked general comment, and a farce was put on
the stage in Paris, in which one of the clowns said,
" Un inaredial ayant voulu ferrer un dne [Anne], a
regu un coup de pied qui I'a rejete de la cour dans le
Verger" (an allusion to his country house). And this
was received with roars of applause.

Anne detested Louise de Savoie, mother of Fran-
cois d'Angouleme, who was heir to the throne. The
political expediency which had prompted the putting
away of Jeanne de France and dissolving her marriage
with Louis XII. had not produced the result antici-
pated. Anne bore the King a daughter, Claude, but
no son, and she could not forgive Louise de Savoie
for being more fortunate than herself No urgency
of her husband and his ministers would induce her
to consent to Claude being affianced to Francis; she
preferred an alliance with Charles of Austria, after-

DEATH OF ANNE 293

wards Charles V. " Why, madam," said the King,
"you want to unite the cats with the mice." It was
not till after her death that the affiance took place.

When she endeavoured to interfere with her hus-
band in his military projects, "Madam," said he, "of
old the dams had horns as well as the stags, but they
made a bad use of them, and God struck them off."

Louis was wont to call her his petite Brette, and
her heart was ever in her native province. At Blois
is shown the balcony from which she loved to con-
template her Breton guard.

In the war with England (15 12) she equipped at
her own cost the vessel called the Cordcliere, that had
such a glorious but fatal history. It was named after
the cord of S. Francis, with which she surrounded the
arms of Brittany. She held the Franciscans in great
esteem, and founded an order of chivalry, whose
badge was the cord.

Anne died at Blois at the age of thirty-nine, in
1 5 14; her body was interred at S. Denis, and her
heart in the convent of the Chartreux at Nantes.

From Rennes several particularly interesting excur-
sions may be made. At Esse, near Janze, is perhaps
the finest alle'e couverte in Brittany. It is a gallery
43 feet in length, and consists of a principal chamber
and a vestibule. The first coverer of the former rests
on two pointed stones, and the interior is divided into
compartments. The first coverer is an enormous
stone. The monument goes by the name of the
" Roche aux fees." At Janze there is a menhir
as well.

Mediaeval times are well represented at Vitre, which

294 RENNES

retains its walls and towers and its chateau in admir-
able preservation, capped with conical roofs. The
interior of the town possesses many ancient houses,
and the streets are a tangle of intricacies. The town
occupies a summit of dark schist rock rising above
the Vilaine. The church of Notre Dame is of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but possesses a
modern spire. The castle is turned into a museum,
and contains tapestries and paintings. In the court
is a beautiful Renaissance turret. The place is to
the North of France what Carcassonne is to the
South, and should not be neglected by a visitor to
Brittany.

At S. Armel is the tomb of the saint and his holy
well, an object of pilgrimage. Armel or Arthmael
is the same as the patron of Ploermel.

The castle of les Roches, near Vitre, was the resi-
dence of Mme. de Sevigne, and is one of the best-
preserved historic monuments of the department.
It is of the Flamboyant and Renaissance periods.

Mme. de Sevigne in her letters describes with
emotion the hangings that took place after the rising
of the Bretons in the reign of Louis XIV. The
Bretons, had borne with impatience the loss of their
peculiar privileges. At every critical period since
the union of the duchy with France they had striven
to recover some of their lost rights, and something
of the former autonomy of the province. Henry IV.
did not enter Rennes till 1598, after he had been
master of Paris for four years.

Even during the minority of Louis XV. they had
risen in the same cause, but this last revolt cost the

A PARISH FLAG 295

Breton nobles dear, for many of the principal among
them lost their heads on the scaffold.

Near Janze is a village with a very odd name —
Corps-nuds — where there is a chapel of the Three
Maries, the object of pilgrimage. It now possesses a
spick-and-span new church, but I remember the old
church fifty }'ears ago. I was there on Midsummer
Day. An indescribable clatter was being made
among the bells. I went inside the belfry and found
the sexton there in his shirt-sleeves ; he had tied a
broomstick by the middle among the bells, and was
rushing about the belfry clashing the stick against
the bells, making noise if not music. Moreover, from
the tower floated a black flag. On examining it
attentively it struck me that it had a peculiar shape,
and possessed a large square patch in it. When the
sexton paused in his labours I ventured to question
him relative to this streamer. " Mais, monsieur, oui,"
said he ; " that is an old pair of my trousers with a
seat inserted by my old woman. I have split up the
legs, and hoisted it. We have no other parish flag.
II faut bien faire quelque chose a I'honneur de Saint
Jean ! "

INDEX

Aaron, S. , 70, 102

Abelarcl, 258

Alan Barbetorte, 34

Aleth, 102

Alignments, 17, 183, 234-8

Alices coiivertes, 14, 15, 233, 236,

293

Anne, Duchess, 41, 285-93

— S., 229, 230

— Ste. d'Auray, 227, 229
Ankou, 23, 25, 149, 229
Anointing of stones, 21
Anon, 24

Archbishop, married, 98
Arches, 52-6, 62, 65
Architecture, 44-68
Armel, S., 260, 294
Armorica, 3, 30
Arthur, Duke, 34
Athelstan, 34
Audierne, 205, 206
Auray, 223, 241

Bagpipes, 173, 174
Baie des Trepasses, 200, 203
Baranton, Well of, 266, 267
Barbe, Ste. , 220
Baroque, 66, 15S, 231
Barzas Breiz, 172, 173
Batz, Isle of, 159
Beaumanoir, 264
Bell of S. Pol, 156
Belle He, 212, 24S
Bigauden, 10, 197, 199, 209
Biniou, 173, 174
Bishops, married, 99
Botrel, 105, 106
Bramber, 39, 264
Brecilien, forest of, 265, 266
Brelevenez, 129, 130

Brest, 166, 167
Bretagne, Basse, I

— Haute, I
Breton people, 167

— tongue, I
Bridget, S., 181, 182
Brieuc, S., 107-9
Brioc, S., 107-9

British colonisation, 4-6, 30
Buttresses, 50-2, 63

Cadoc, S., 214-16, 241, 242, 256,

257
Cadwalader, S., 181
Calendars, 71
Calvaries, 133, 171, 181
Cambry, 161
Canao, 249, 250
Canonisation, 163, 164
Carhaix, 189, 273-6
Carnac, 13, 21, 231-40
Carved oak, 128
Cellar, soldiers in, 15 1
Celtic saints supplanted, 70, 71
Celts, 8
Charles de Blois, 35-40, 58, 126,

127
Charles VIII., 41, 291
Chateaubrian, 74
Chateauhn, iSo, 182, 188, 189
Chateaux, 66-8, 96, loi, 162, 222,

294
Chimneys in churches, 130
Chramm, 249, 250
Clans, 7

Cleder-Cap-Sizun, 199
Coetquin, loo, loi
Combourg, 67, loi
Companies, 38
Conan, Duke, 34

296

INDEX

297

Concarneau, 222
Conleath, S., 181, 1S2
Conmore, 31, 97, 141, 143, I44,

257, 273-5
Conninais, La, 96
Constance, Duchess, 34
Convoyon, S., 32
Cordeliere, 152, 293
Corentine, S., 191, 192
Cornely, S., 231-3
Cornouaille, 5, 9, 30
Corps-nuds, 295
Corsairs, 103
Corseul, 96

Costume, 199, 200, 208, 221, 222
Couesnon, i
Coulitz, S., 181
Cromlech, 17, 18, 235
Cross of Constantine, 198, 199
Crozon, 183

Crucifix, vested, 194, 195
Cursing, 124-6

Dagworth, 38, 126
Dances, 171
Daoulas, 176
Dartmoor, 17
David, S., 131, 174-6
Dead, secure possession, 91, 92
Death, cult of, 22-6, 149-51
Deflexion, 193
Devil's Rock, 219
Dillon regiment, 95, 96
Dinan, 86-106
— churches of, 49, 62, 87
Dirinon, 174

Dol, 20, 32, ^s, 57, 97-101
Dolmen, 14, 133, 183, 205,233, 237
Domnonia, 15, 30, 141
Duguay-Trouin, 103-5
Du Guesclin, 40, 41, 88-90, 229,
281-4

Elorn, 179

England's downfall predicted, 161

English interference, 34

Eogain, S., 186, 187, 204, 205

Erdeven, 10, 241

Erispoe, 32

Esse, 293

Exposition, visit to, 167-9

Faouet, Le, 219, 220
Farmhouses, 68
Fiacc, S., 183, 207
Fiacre, S., 220
Fingar, S., 185, 1 86
Flamboyant style, 60-2, 64, 21 8,

220, 224, 261, 262
Folgoet, 160, 162
Foliage, decorative, 66, 220
Fonts, 139

Forest, central, 265, 266
Forged charters, 179

— decretals, 2S0
Fouesnant, So
Fragan, in

Freres La Mennais, 268-71
Frisian invaders, 3
Fruit-growing, 178

Gallo-Romans, 3, 4
Garaye, La, 94, 95
Gauls, 2, 3
Gavr-inis, 13, 253
Geoffrey de Pontblanc, 130

— Plantagenet, 34
Geometrical tracery, 58-60
Ghost story, 210, 211
Gildas, 4, 143, 254-7, 274, 275
Goalen, Mr., 196

Gouet valley, 109
Grallo, 177, 191, 200-2
Granite, use of, 163
Gueroc, 248, 273
Guimiliau, 160, 1 78
Guingamp, 6^, 76
Gunthiern, S, 213-15
Gurloes, S. , 213
Gwen, three-breasted, iii

Hair, oblation of, 276
Hennebon, 223, 224
Henry H., 34, 35
Herbot, S., 21, 276, 277
Hiiarve, S., 5, 142-4
Huelgoat, 276

Iceland fisheries, 115, 116

He de Sein, 203

Irish colonists, 184-S

Irvillac, 79

Is, 200, 201

Ivernian race, 2, 9, 13, 14

298

INDEX

Jacut, S., sur Mer, 94
Jean de Alontfort, 35-8
junior, 24-40, 226-8

— S. du Doigt, 73
Jeanne de Blois, 35-S

— de France, 289-91

— de Montfort, 36-8, 214, 215
Josselin, 67, 74, 262, 263

Kabyles, 2
Kerjean, 162
Kernuz, 3
Kersanton, 66
Keryolet, 222
Kirec, S., 136-8
Kerrigans, 183
Kreisker, 156

Lamballe, 46, 57, 58, 62
La Meaugon, no
La Mennais, 268, 269
Lampaul, 178
Landerneau, 80
Landevennec, 176, 177
Landivisiau, 160
Langoat, 120
Langon, 22
Lanleft", 127
Lanmeur, 46, 153
Lannilis, 160
Lannion, 63, 129-47
Lehon, 90
Leon, 5, 148-65
Liberata, S. , 195
Lit-clos, 68, 127
Loc Maria, 194
Locronan, 75, 79, 1 84
Loc Tudy, 209
Loqueffret, 21
Loquivy, 13 1

Macliau, 249, 250
Maglorius, S. , 92, 93
Malo, S., 102, 103
Marriages, 169
Marseilles ware, 196
Mary Stuart, 158
Mathuedoi, 34
Meliau, S., 153
Melor, S., 153, 154
Menez-bre, 140, 144, 276

Menez-hom, 183
Menhir, 15, 16, 206, 293
Montagnes d'Arre, 276
— Noires, 182, 183
Morals, 171, 209
Morbihan, 253, 254
Morlaix, 1 50-2
Motreff, 75

Names, Breton, 6-8

Nantes, 36

Neventer, 179

Nominoe, 32, 91, 97

Nonna, S., 175

Norman architecture, 48, 49

Orange, Prince of, 221
Ossuaries, 133-6, 159
Ouessant, 150

Pagani, il, 149, 160

Paganism, traces of, 18

Paimpol, 1 1 5- 1 8

Pain beiiit, 80, I

Papier Timbre, Revolt of the, 207,

208
Pardons, 67, 85, 174, 185, 200,

207, 209, 220, 230, 231, 242, 253
Pasquitien, 32, 33
Penmarch, 206, 207
Perros Guirec, 138, 139
Philibert (S.) de Grandlieu, 45
Piers, 52, 54
Pilgrims, 72, 278
Pinsticking, 76
Pleyben, 180
Ploermel, 260-2
Plouaret, 22, 139
Ploufragan, ill
Plougastel, 169-79
Plouguer, 275
Ploumanach, 137
Plouvinger, 185
Poetry, popular, 171, 172
Pointe du Raz, 204
Pointed architecture, 55
Pol (S.) de Leon, 154-8
Pompeia, 1 19, 120
Pont I'Abbe, 207, 208
Pontusval, 160
Porches, 65

INDEX

299

Pouance, 20, 74
Primaguet, 152
Primelin, 204, 205
Prisiac, 221
Purgatory, a visit to, 24

Quay, S., 138, 139
Quiberon, 240
Quimper, t,7, 190-4

— ware, 196
Quimperle, 70, 2 10- 1 8
Quinipili, Venus of, 26-8

Races of men, 8, II, 12

— horse, 112
Regalis, Pp., 5, 250
Renaissance, 62-4, 131, 351, 261,

262
Rennes, 279-85
Rhiwal, 5, 108, HI, II9
Rhuys, 254, 257, 258
Rib, central, 193
Rivanon, 142
Roche, La, 178, 179

Derrien, 38, 126, 130, 131

Roman domination, 3
Romanesque architecture, 49, 1 98,

212, 213, 251
Ronan, S., 184, 185
Roscoft', 158, 159
Rosgrand, 219

Saint, meaning of term, 137
Salaun, the Blessed, 162, 163
Salmon of Science, 192
Samson, S. , 20, 31, 97, 98, 143,

144, 156, 261
Sardine fishery, 197, 198
Sark, 93

Saxon invasion, 3
Scaer, 221, 27S

Screens, rood, 145. 220, 275. 276
Segal, S., 181
Servais, S., 76

Seven Saints, 22, 140
Slate quarries, 189
Smugglers, 158
Solomon, S., 32, 33, 175
Spires, 14, 118, 119
Succino, 67

Taurobolic altars, loo
Thegonnec, S., 63, 169, 178, 1S6
Thirty, Battle of 39, 263-5
Tighernac, S., 186, 187
Tonquedec, 67, 145
Towers, 64

Tregastel, 20, 132, 133
Treguier, 115-28
Tremor, S., 274, 275
Trezeny, 145
Tryphena, S., 273-5
Tugdual, S., 119, 120

Uncumber, S., 195, 196

Vannes, 45, 243-53
Vaulting, 50
Vener, S., 22
Veneti, defeat of, 243-7
Venus of Quinipili, 26-8
Villemarque, de la, 172, 173
Vincent P'errier, S., 252
Visit to Purgatory, 24
Vitre, 67, 288
Vitrified fort, 113, 114

Wax on churches, 21

Wells, holy, 19, Jt,, 74, 132. 175.

176, 231, 262, 278
Wheels in churches, 198
Wilgefortis, S., 195
Windows, 56, 57
Winwaloe, S., 112, 177, 200-2
Wolves, 196, 197

Yhuel, S., 219
Yves, S., 119, 123

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